Extracting river pollutants using Amazonian plants - OVERCOMING THE BIGGEST TREATMENT CHALLENGES - WWT
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OVERCOMING THE BIGGEST TREATMENT CHALLENGES
Extracting river pollutants using Amazonian
plants
Jonathan L Jones
Senior Environment Officer
WWT Wastewater 2019 Conference & Exhibition,
National Conference Centre, Birmingham, 29 January 2019
Background
The EU Water Framework Directive requires that all
UK waterbodies achieve “Good Ecological Status” Ecological
by 2027 (waterbodies are classified as opposite) Based upon
Status or physical, chemical
Potential and biological
Study area High status
The Fendrod River is currently failing for:
Fish; Good
Macroinvertebrates;
Moderate
Zinc;
If one element
Cadmium; Poor fails then that is
Manganese; and the status of that
Poly-aromatic Hydrocarbons
Bad water body
Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham
29 January 2019
Nant-Y-Fendrod catchment
The river, which is approximately 4.5km in length, is
a tributary of the main River Tawe, which in turn
drains the Swansea Valley into Swansea Bay (an
EU designated bathing water, SSSI and
Commercial fishery)
Situated in the heart of the South Wales Coal
field;
Location of historic metal smelting;
During the 1800s, 60% of the world’s copper and
zinc was smelted here due to an abundance of
coal;
Smelting waste was disposed of in-situ.
*Geological map taken from
http://www.bgs.ac.uk
Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham
29 January 2019
Swansea Bay, River Tawe and Swansea Marina Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 29 January 2019
Lower Swansea Valley during its industrial past
Morfa Bank Works on the Lower Tawe
Vivian & Sons Old Forest Works at
Numerous Spelter works Swansea, later converted into Morriston
occupying the valley Spelter Works . Reproduced from Col.
floor in Morriston Grant Francis, ‘The Smelting of Copper in
the Swansea District (1881)
Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham
29 January 2019
So why is this work important?
Failure to achieve Good Ecological Status may result in UK Government facing costly
infraction proceedings. This would also represent a failure to protect our most vital
natural resource.
Environmental pollution is a global problem affecting human, animal and plant
health, particularly in developing countries;
Clean water is needed to support a healthy ecosystem;
We need to develop sustainable treatment methods to effectively deal with
problematic pollutants and overcome poor wastewater and river water quality;
With enough research, treatment methods can be developed to utilise waste or
problematic materials as a sustainable source of treatment media;
This has implications for not only waste water treatment though drinking water too,
especially in developing countries and those where water poverty is an issue.
Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham
29 January 2019
Heavy metal pollution Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 29 January 2019
Manganese
Site Name Max/Min/Mean Zinc (µg/L) Cadmium (µg/L)
(µg/L)
Maximum 2400 4.28 563
Nant-Y-Fendrod d/s of
Minimum 150 0.19 142
flood alleviation lake
Mean *870.14 1.25 314.57
Maximum 4320 12.9 9.5
Nant-Y-Fendrod u/s of
Minimum 183 0.19 2.42
Nant-Y-Ffin
Mean 2039.28 1.25 5.67
Maximum 2600 17.9 21.8
Nant-Y-Ffin u/s of Nant-Y-
Minimum 150 0.44 2.18
Fendrod
Mean 870.14 5.2 5.84
Maximum 4320 14.4 9.87
Nant-Y-Fendrod d/s of
Minimum 327 1.43 3.13
Nant-Y-Ffin
Mean 2399.41 7.65 6.23
Maximum 1080 9.18 6.04
River Tawe d/s of Nant-Y-
Minimum 11.9 0.111 1.02
Fendrod
Mean 78.34 0.93 1.87
Maximum 45.3 0.14 2.82
River Tawe u/s of Nant-Y-
Minimum 5.29 0.11 1.07
Fendrod
Mean 11.23 0.12 1.66
Maximum 27.4 6.41 5.65
Nant Bran u/s of
Minimum 6.54 16.1 9.22
Nant-Y-Fendrod
Mean 15.4 0.1 1.1
Maximum 29.2 6.68 10.7
Nant-Y-Fendrod u/s of
Minimum 5.46 0.12 1.05
Nant Bran
Mean 13.99 0.82 4.03
Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham
29 January 2019
Other sources of pollution
Other than historical contamination, pollution sources that have been identified include
fly-tipped waste, domestic sewage, contamination from highway drains, suspended solids
from construction activities and contamination from incidents at food and chemical
processors;
GCMS Screening shows that chronic and acutely ecotoxic chemicals are entering the
stream via the drainage system e.g. Bisphenol A, which is a widespread, problematic
endocrine disruptor. Passive monitoring has further examined this.
Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham
29 January 2019
Passive Monitoring using Diffuse Gradient in Thin Films and Chemcatcher
DGT results identified using ICP-MS
Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham
29 January 2019Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes)
An aquatic plant which originated in the rain
forests of the Amazon Basin and is native of
Brazil;
It is the world’s fastest growing free-floating
hydrophyte;
Its rapid growth produces dense mats that block
water bodies causing flooding, navigation
problems and interfere with crop irrigation,
power generation and ecological status;
Whilst the plant has a prolific growth rate and is
deemed to be invasive, it is also an excellent
accumulator of heavy metals and due to its
abundance, presents an attractive low-cost,
green remediation strategy;
Images courtesy of Adobe stock photos
Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham
29 January 2019Phytoremediation Investigations
Conducted at three levels, namely:
A bench-scale study using
polluted river water and synthetic
solutions;
An in-situ trial using Water
hyacinth within the Fendrod river;
and
A bankside trial to pump and
treat river water;
Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham
29 January 2019Bench-scale study
Metal(loid) Percentage Percentage
removal removal
7 hours 21 days
Aluminium 63% 100% Table showing maximum percentage
Zinc 62% 80% removal of metals observed in ten litre
samples of polluted river water
Cadmium 47% 100% exposed to water hyacinth plants over
Manganese 22% 100% a period of just seven hours;
Arsenic 23% 45%
Column three shows results when
Nickel 19% 50% extended to three weeks exposure
(optimum time required reported in
Cobalt 14% 100% literature):
Initial metal concentrations, expressed in µg/L were as follows:
Al – 89.82; Zn – 2020.33; Cd – 6.23; Mn – 421.83; As – 2.11; Ni – 3.99; Co – 1.66
Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham
29 January 2019In-situ study
Metal(loid) Percentage
Assessed if the plants can removal
remove metal pollutants from 8 hours
actual river water in a dynamic
flow setting;
Aluminium 18.23%
An amount of removal was Titanium 10.41%
demonstrated given only a very Chromium 39.56%
short exposure time under flow
conditions. Zinc 12.22%
Cadmium 15.47%
Manganese 6.37%
Arsenic 23%
Nickel 7.18%
Copper 12.81%
Cobalt 21.39%
Antimony 26.49%
Lead 7.22%
Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham
29 January 2019Bank side study
Metal(loid) Percentage
Again assessed if the plants can removal
remove metal pollutants from 8 hours
actual river water in a dynamic
flow setting without interference Aluminium 24.58%
of dilution by surrounding river Chromium 22.57%
water;
Zinc 4.04%
An amount of removal was
again demonstrated given only a Cadmium 6.72%
very short exposure time under
Manganese 5.38%
flow conditions and under sub-
optimal climatic conditions Arsenic 9.39%
(conducted in October);
Nickel 5.76%
Copper 10.76%
Cobalt 6.88%
Tin 8.32%
Lead 25.54%
Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham
29 January 2019Comparison of all three studies
This Venn diagram shows similarities and differences between metals
removal during each of the studies
Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham
29 January 2019Summing up
Water hyacinth has been used effectively for removing a range of toxic metals from polluted water in the below-
optimal, temperate, maritime UK climate;
Potential far-reaching consequences of this, in offering the prospect of using a highly invasive ‘weed’ which is a
costly and widespread environmental nuisance globally;
This ecologically remarkable ‘weed’ may present a low-cost, low energy, sustainable remediation technology, that
has the added benefit of being freely available in developing countries and that is harvested in attempts to control its
proliferation (and also works outside of its normal climatic setting);
Compared to the cost and footprint of conventional treatment technologies, this surely merits its full exploitation
If interested in learning more about the work, please read and share the full research article in Nature Scientific Reports:
Jonathan L. Jones, Richard O. Jenkins & Parvez I. Haris (2018) Extending the geographic reach of the water hyacinth plant in removal of heavy metals
from a temperate Northern Hemisphere river. Scientific Reports. Volume 8, Article number: 11071
Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham
29 January 2019Acknowledgements
Many thanks go to my co-authors and PhD Supervisors:
Professor Parvez I Haris1, Professor Richard O Jenkins1 ;
Personal thanks also go to my Team Leader at Natural Resources Wales, Hamish Osborn2 for his
unending support and encouragement; My colleagues Chris Palmer2, Emma Keenan2, Paul Hyatt2, Dr
Anthony Gravell3, Natalie Dudley-Burton3, Ben Martins3, Dave Johns3, Dave Hughes3, Nicola
Charambalou3, Emily Evans3, Ian Hoskins3, Melanie Schumacher3, Graham Rutt3 and Julie Gething3 for all
of their assistance, patience and advice with the sampling and analysis work;
I would also like to thank De Montfort University, Natural Resources Wales and the Natural Resources
Wales Analytical Service for supporting this work.
1 Facultyof Health & Life Sciences, De Montfort university, Leicester, LE1 9BH, United Kingdom
2Natural Resources Wales, Maes Newydd, Llandarcy, Neath-Port Talbot, SA10 6JQ, United Kingdom
3Natural Resources Wales Analytical Services, 2nd Floor, Faraday Tower, Swansea University, Singleton, Swansea, SA2 8PP, United Kingdom
Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham
14 June 2018Thank you very much for listening
and thank you to WWT for inviting me to
participate at the conference
Any questions?
E-mail: jonathan.jones@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk
Tel: 03000 653 226 (direct dial)
Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham
14 June 2018You can also read
