UV and Phytoremediation
Group: 19205
Basel Islam Mohamed Helmy Ezz El-Arab
Hossam Mohamed Mohamed Elwakil
Youssef Hassan Hassan Abdel-Aal
Hossam Emad El-Din Abd El-Salam
1921009
1921013
1921044
1921012
Abstract:
Increasing clean water sources is one of Egypt's major challenges.
Humans pollute water by disposing of industrial wastewater in oceans and
seas, it was discovered. Textile wastewater, which contains heavy metals,
bacteria, and viruses, is one of these industrial by-products that harm the
environment. Filtering this water requires highly efficient technology,
which can be expensive, so research was conducted to select the least
expensive prototype with high efficiency. Accordingly, the chosen solution
is filtering using sediment filtration, phytoremediation, UV filtration, and
aeration. The two main stages, phytoremediation, and UV filtration were
chosen to remove heavy metals by absorbing them with a plant called
Lemnaceae and killing bacteria by killing their RNA with UV rays. These
stages will aid in lowering the PH and TDS of the water before it is used
to wash vehicles. The prototype is made up of four stages: a sediment
filtration tube containing activated charcoal, pebble, sand, and cobblestone,
a glass rectangular container containing Lemnaceae for phytoremediation
with linoleum protection above it, a UV chamber for bacteria filtration, and
an aquarium air pump for aeration. Our prototype must have a PH value
ranging from 6.5 to 8.5 and a TDS level ranging from 300 to 200 mg/L.
When the prototype was built and tested, it exceeded the listed design
requirements, reaching a PH value of 7.1 and a TDS level of 280 mg/L.
Several conclusions were reached after testing the prototype, including the
fact that Lemnaceae is an efficient way to filter water naturally without
using chemicals or technology that can be costly and harmful to the
environment.
Introduction:
Egypt confronts 11 grand challenges that are important to be
addressed and solved. One of them which is increasing sources of clean
water. Textile wastewater is one of the water pollutants that must be filtered
as it causes diseases that can harm both animals and humans. The main
harmful pollutants in textile wastewater are heavy metals, viruses, and
bacteria. Heavy metals found in organic chemical manufacturing and steel
industry wastewater, such as Lead (Pb) and Cadmium (Cd), can cause
gastrointestinal problems, kidney dysfunction, and cancer. Heavy metal
pollutants can also cause severe toxicity in fish and have an impact on plant
growth, so they must be removed from the water. Textile wastewater
contains bacteria and viruses such as cholera, which can cause chronic lung
disease or kidney disease in humans. According to researchers, there are
1.3 to 4.0 million cases of cholera each year, with 21 000 to 143 000 deaths
worldwide (Organization, 2022) .
Solutions were made to solve these problems as Smolt farm for
Grieg Seafood in the USA. Prefiltration and UV irradiation which used UV
rays to filter the water from bacteria and viruses (H Liltved & S J Cripps,
1999). A small channel was made with a container at the end with a UV
lamp. The UV lamp was suspended above the level of the water by 10 cm
so it can be controlled at low flow rates of water. The effectiveness of UV
water disinfection is one of its advantages. Most UV water purification
units in the Grieg seafood water system can purify water from 99.99% of
bacteria and microorganisms in the water under the right conditions. The
problem was the health risk because most UV lamps contain mercury
vapors, and handling them - especially broken ones - poses an occupational
health risk.
The second solution was The irrigation ponds of the farms of AsSamra wastewater pond in Jordan (Maisa’a W. Shammout & Hana Zakaria,
2015). Duckweed (Lemnaceae) was used to filter it from heavy metals as 3
irrigation ponds containing duckweed were used at Khirbet As-Samra in
Jordan to be monitored and analyzed regularly. It could aid in the natural
treatment of water without the use of any other complex processes that
require the use of chemicals, but this harmed the wildlife in one of the
ponds because the animals were able to consume large amounts of
duckweed, which contained high levels of chemicals and nutrition that
were absorbed, potentially harming the wild animals.
The solution was chosen to mainly get rid of heavy metals, bacteria,
and viruses, So Lemnaceae and ultraviolet filtration were chosen. As
ultraviolet rays can kill the RNA of the bacteria which is unable to
reproduce and will also kill any viruses in the water. It has a long lifespan
and cleans the water efficiently in a short period. The Lemnaceae can
absorb all the heavy metals in the water even after being saturated which
will make a regular photosynthesis process that will benefit the
environment. The project aims to decrease the PH of the water from (12)
to about (6.5-8.5) to be accessible for Washing vehicles and to decrease the
TDS from 960 mg/L to a range from 300-200 mg/L. The prototype will be
tested in two ways which are: The GIT bacterial test to know if bacteria
still exist and the PH and the TDS will be tested in a water analysis lab.
Materials and Method:
Table 1: The materials used in construction prototype.
Method:
For clearly treating industrial wastewater, the prototype consists of
main five stages. Three stages are physical, one is chemical, and one is
biological.
The first step entailed organizing all of the safety procedures, such
as donning lab coats and gloves to avoid injury or textile damage, as well
as wearing face masks to avoid inhaling any dangerous chemicals.
The first stage is a recycled plastic water container with a length of
15cm, a width of 15cm, and a height of 15cm. 3.375 liters (3375 𝑐𝑚3 ) of
textile wastewater will be collected in a plastic container and then will be
screened. The screening process is done using Alum 𝐾𝐴𝑙 (𝑆𝑂4 )2 . 12𝐻2 𝑂
(Hydrated potassium aluminum sulfate) which is collect large
precipitations in water. The container is connected to the next stage through
a plastic tube of 0.6 cm diameter. A piece of cloth is put at the beginning
of the tube, which is in the form of a colander, to remove the precipitations
with a diameter of ≥ 256 mm to not affect the sediment filtration and it is
responsible for the screening process.
The second stage, fig (1), is consisted of two sub-stages physical and
chemical. The sedimentations represent the physical and the activated
charcoal is the chemical one. The stage is done in a Clorox bottle due to its
nihilistic chemical reaction with water. The bottle with a radius of 4cm,
and a height of 18 cm, has a volume of 804.24𝑐𝑚3 . The sedimentation
filtration system consists of three layers of Cobble, Pebble, and sand
respectively. Each layer is 3cm thick. Particles that are ranged from (0.05
- 2.0 mm) will be filtered by sand, particles from (4 – 64 mm) will be
prevented by pebbles, and those which ranged from (64 – 256 mm) by
cobbles. After sedimentation, the activated charcoal takes place as a
chemical process. A 3cm layer of activated charcoal is put in.
Figure 1: The Infiltration system.
The third stage is the biological stage using Duckweed (Lemnaceae)
which will be done in a glass box with a length of 20cm, a width of 15cm,
and a height of 15cm, which has a volume of 4.5 liters (4500 𝑐𝑚3 ) as
shown in fig (2). There are four sheets of linoleum on the top of the
container in a trapezoid shape with areas of 171 𝑐𝑚2 and 288 𝑐𝑚2 with an
inclination angle from the horizontal of the surface with 69.64𝑜 , and a
frame of acrylic that will hold the linoleum has 4 poles inside the aquarium
with a height of 15cm. The length of the sides of the frame will be 16 cm.
The inclination reflects about 60% of the sunlight. The treatment process
is last (16 - 20 hours) for the targeted results.
Figure 2: The glass container of the lemnaceae.
The fourth stage is the Ultraviolet treatment as shown in fig (3)
which represents a physical treatment process. A UV lamp with a
wavelength of 254 nm is used with a flow rate of 3.6 L/min for treating
water from bacteria, pathogens, and bacteria and viruses vectors. The
cylinder container that holds the UV lamp is made of steel with a length of
27 cm and a diameter of 6.5 cm and a volume of (895𝑐𝑚3 ). A coded water
pump was used to sustain the water flow rate through the UV lamp at 3.6
L/min fig (6). A Nano Arduino was used in programming the pump using
C++ programing language.
Figure 3; The UV Light chamber.
The fifth stage is represented by treating water using a (10 - 15 min)
aeration process in a recycled plastic container with a length of 15cm, a
width of 15cm, and a height of 15cm fig (4). Its volume is 3.375 liters (3375
𝑐𝑚3 ).
Figure 4: The air pump of aeration process.
After putting the prototype in the sunlight and taking a sample from
the water after 18-20 hours. The last stage is testing the prototype using
two methods which are: The PH and TDS test in a water analysis lab and a
GIT bacteria test for the water to determine the activity of the bacteria in
water using agar and a sample from the bacteria in the water to see if it will
grow or not. A sample of water was taken and left for 3 days
to see the result.
Results:
First attempt:
The positive result is that the prototype removal efficiency was
approximately 34.78% for NO3 and 29.38% for SO4. This aided in the
reduction of sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS). On a long-term basis, these
chemicals are harmful to human skin health.
The negative result is that we used the incorrect amount of alum (44.099
grams) for approximately 3.375 liters of water. As a result, the alum
reduced the PH value from 7.13 to 4.3, causing the water to become acidic
enough to fall outside of the Lemnaceae plant's living PH range (6-8). As
a result, the prototype did not meet the design requirements, as shown in
table (2).
Table 2: It shows the results of the water before and after the filtration process in the first
attempt.
Parameter
Before filtration
After filtration
Unit
TDS
PH
960
12.3
800
4.3
ppm (Mg/L)
-
Percentage of
removal
16.67%
27.07%
Second attempt:
The positive result is that the filtration time was reduced from 30 hours to
20 hours as a result of this. As a result, the prototype met the design
requirements as shown in table (3) by lowering the TDS value from 960
𝑚𝑔/𝐿 to 284 𝑚𝑔/𝐿 and the PH value from 12.3 to 7.4.
The negative result is that the Lemnaceae died after 40 hours in the
filtration system. We determined that this was due to the lemnaceae's
inability to withstand high light intensity for extended periods during the
day.
Table 3: It shows the results of the water before and after the filtration process in the second
attempt.
Parameter
Before filtration
After filtration
Unit
TDS
PH
960
12.3
284
7.4
ppm (Mg/L)
-
Percentage of
removal
70.41%
39.83%
Third attempt:
The positive result is that the prototype's filtration time was reduced from
20 hours to 18 hours. As a result, the prototype met the design requirements
as shown in table (4) by lowering the TDS value from 960 𝑚𝑔/𝐿 to 280
𝑚𝑔/𝐿 and the PH value from 12.3 to 7.1.
The negative result was that the sediment filtration flow rate was too slow,
which was one of the reasons for lowering the overall system flow rate. It
was approximately 0.1 𝐿/𝑚𝑖𝑛.
Table 4: It shows the results of the water before and after the filtration process in the third
attempt.
Parameter
Before filtration
After filtration
Unit
TDS
PH
960
12.3
280
7.1
ppm (Mg/L)
-
Percentage of
removal
70.83%
42.28%
Analysis:
Increasing clean water sources is an important thing to work on as the world
faces water pollution that harms the environment. Because textile water is a major
source of water pollution, it must be filtered before it enters the seas or oceans. Heavy
metals, viruses, and bacteria are the main components of textile water, which raises the
PH, TSS, and TDS. As a result, coagulation, phytoremediation, and UV filtration were
chosen as methods for filtering textile water. The solution was inspired by two projects:
the irrigation ponds of the farms of As-Samra wastewater pond in Jordan, and the Smolt
farm for Grieg Seafood in the United States. Although these projects yielded positive
results, the negative outcomes outweighed the positive. As a result, changes had to be
made to avoid the negative consequences. A prototype has been built to test these
changes.
The prototype was created after researching the most efficient way to filter
bacteria and heavy metals. First, screening and coagulation processes were used to
collect large precipitations at the container's bottom, which could then be easily filtered
in the subsequent stages. Alum 𝐾𝐴𝑙 (𝑆𝑂4 )2 . 12𝐻2 𝑂 (Hydrated potassium aluminum
sulfate) was used to coagulate precipitations. Second, cotton was used to filter the water
that was passing from these precipitations to the next stage. Following the conclusion
(ES.2.01) that water movement between sediments in the earth can filter the water, a
sediment filtration process was used to remove large sediments, odor, taste, and color
from the water using five layers: cobblestone, pebbles, sand, activated charcoal, and
cotton (Ann Benbow, Mark Carpenter, Matthew Hoover, Michael J.Smith, & Jhon
B.Southard, 2012).
Then the main processes are phytoremediation and UV filtration, Lemnaceae
phytoremediation will filter heavy metals from water by using Lemnaceae, which has
a high ability to absorb heavy metals even after saturation as in figure (5) Fourth, UV
filtration was used to remove bacteria and viruses by killing its RNA as we studied in
(BI.2.03) where it was studied how RNA can replicate by initiation, elongation, and
termination (Jane B. Reece, et al., 2005). The study concluded that RNA is responsible
for the reproduction process of bacteria, so if it is destroyed, the bacteria will no longer
grow in water. Daphnia Magna, one of the most common bacterial vectors in textile
wastewater, was the focus of this stage.
Figure 5: It shows the lemnaceae phytoremediation system used in wastewater
filtration.
The prototype failed the first trial due to several factors, including the use of a
large amount of alum (44.09 g), which increased the acidity of the water and killed the
Lemnaceae, and the cotton used to filter the water from precipitations and sediments
hindered the water from passing smoothly to the next stages, resulting in the water path
becoming completely blocked during the second test (after 40 hours). After 30 hours,
the first test yielded negative results because the PH was 4.3 and the TDS was 800
𝑚𝑔/𝐿. As a result, during the first trial, the prototype failed to meet the design
requirements.
Following these observations, changes to the prototype were made to avoid
these failures. To avoid increasing the acidity, the alum mass was reduced to (5 g), it
was calculated by using the knowledge from (CH.2.01) and (CH.2.03) Which is how to
measure the concentration and how the acidity can be measured using -log (H+) (H+ is
the concentration of the solution) and a piece of cloth was used instead of cotton to
avoid system blocking (Steven S. Zumdahl & Susan A. Zumdahl, 2012). The second
prototype was tested and met the design requirements as the PH dropped to 7.4 and the
TDS dropped to 284 𝑚𝑔/𝐿. However, because the Lemnaceae died gradually from
direct sunlight, it was critical to keep it out of the sun. A bacterial test of GIT bacteria
was also performed using the knowledge in (BI.2.02) to determine whether the bacteria
is alive or dead by using agar and chemicals to create a medium for the bacteria to live
in, as shown in figure (6), and it was discovered that there is still a large number of
bacteria in water. The UV stage, which is responsible for killing the bacteria, was found
to have a problem because the water flow rate was fast (4 𝐿/𝑚𝑖𝑛), and the ultraviolet
rays did not have enough time to filter the water completely.
Figure 6: It shows the bacteria colonies
formation on the top of the mocconkey
agar in the petri dish.
Even after meeting the design requirements, a third prototype was required to
achieve the best possible outcome. A transparent linoleum pyramid was placed above
the Lemnaceae in the shape of a trapezoid with an angle of inclination of 69.64𝑜 above
the horizontal to reflect about 60% of the direct sunlight and extend the life of the
Lemnaceae. The plastic container was placed by a glass one to easily control the
dimensions and to be more sustainable with nature. The length of the container has
increased to increase the amount of Lemnaceae and the height has reduced to get more
efficient filtration from the Lemnaceae, so a 3D design was made on Solid Works to
simulate the dimensions of the prototype and the linoleum as in figure (7) Also, the
flow rate of the water pump was reduced to 3.6 𝐿/𝑚𝑖𝑛 to allow the UV to filter the
water of bacteria and viruses with more efficiency and the GIT bacteria was made again
and less bacterial colonies were formed. After that, an aeration process was added to
increase the DO (Dissolved oxygen) in the water to be used in washing vehicles.
The third prototype resulted in the success of the prototype by decreasing the PH 7.1
and the TDS to 280 𝑚𝑔/𝐿 but in a shorter time duration (18 hours) which achieved the
design requirements. The last step was analyzing the data on graphs to calculate the
efficiency of each trial as shown in figures (8), and (9).
Figure 7: It shows a 3D design for the third attempt for the
prototype on solid Works.
TDS levels in (mg/L) before and after filtration.
TDS levels (mg/L)
1200
1000
960
960
960
800
800
600
400
284
280
200
0
First attempt
second attempt
third attempt
attempts
Before filtration
After filtration
Figure 8: shows a column graph for the TDS level in (mg/L) for the 3 attempts.
PH levels before and after filtration.
14
12,3
12,3
12,3
12
PH levels
10
7,4
8
6
7,1
4,3
4
2
0
First attempt
second attempt
third attempt
Attempts
Before filtration
After filtration
Figure 9: It shows a column graph of the PH levels in the 3 attempts.
Recommendations:
1) The UV stage can be replaced with the ozonation process, which is more
efficient in killing bacteria and viruses, but it needs high technology that isn’t
available in Egypt.
2)
Acrylic sheets can be used instead of linoleum as they can be more sustainable
with nature and can work more than linoleum but we couldn’t use it because of
the budget.
3) Ultrafiltration membrane can be used as it filters small particles (0.2 microns)
but it requires Polyamide, Polysulfide, and Polyester membranes which need
high-quality material that isn’t available in Egypt to be done.
4) The micro bubbling process is more efficient in increasing dissolved oxygen in
water than the Aquarium air pump, but it requires high technology and huge
electric power.
5) Nylon and polyester are better at isolating the UV rays from the surrounding
environment, but it is hard to find them pure in Egypt, and have a high cost that
will exceed the budget.
6) The Project large scale is recommended to be built in the upper Egypt part as its
sunnier in these parts of Egypt. The presence of the sun will help in increasing
the lifetime of the Lemnaceae.
Conclusion:
At the end of the journey, there were a few key points that needed to
be addressed. The first is that the alum could have a significant impact on
the acidity of the water, lowering it from 12.3 to 4.3 in the first attempt,
which was a significant change that caused significant changes in the
system's other processes. Also, Lemnaceae phytoremediation was found
to be one of the most affordable ways to filter water chemically from TDS
in wastewater because it has a wide pH range and is one of the most
prevalent plants along Egyptian riverbanks. Additionally, it was found that
UV filtration is superior to chlorine filtration for the treatment of water
because chlorine-resistant bacteria (CRB) like Pseudomonas and
Sphingomonas exist in textile wastewater (Li-WeiLuo, et al., 2021).
Because of their resistance to chlorine, these bacteria are not killed by the
use of chlorine; however, the UV light filtration system can eradicate these
bacteria.
Acknowledgment:
“In the end, we would like to thank Allah for guiding and helping us
in our journey and gifting us with wisdom and patience to be able to make
the right choices. We’d like to thank Mr. Ahmed Emara, our school
manager, Mrs. Eman Abdelmonim, the Deputy, Mrs. Nardine, Mrs. Olfat,
Mr. Mena, and Mr. Ismail Shawky our capstone teachers for guiding us
and helping us with the problems that have faced us. Thanks to Mr. Ahmed
Khairy the fabrication laboratory teacher for helping us with the lab tools
and with constructing our prototype.”
Citation:
References

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
Maisa’a W. Shammout, & Hana Zakaria. (2015, October). Ecological Engineering.
Water lentils (duckweed) in Jordan irrigation ponds as a natural water, 83, 71-77.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2015.05.041

Organization, W. H. (2022, March 30). Cholera. Retrieved from World Helath
Organization: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cholera

Steven S. Zumdahl, & Susan A. Zumdahl. (2012). Zumdhal chemistry ninth edition.
Ney York: Mary Finch.
For further information:
Basel Islam Ezz El-Arab
Hossam Mohamed Elwakil
Youssef Hassan Abdel-Aal
Hossam Emad Abd El-Salam
Basel.1921009@stemgharbiya.moe.edu.eg
Hossam.1921013@stemgharbiya.moe.edu.eg
Yousef.1921044@stemgharbiya.moe.edu.eg
Hossam.1921012@stemgharbiya.moe.edu.eg