Bioremediation of Wastewater using Invasive Bivalves

Abstract

The contaminant concentration in water bodies are increasing with the increase in industrialization of the country. Pollution of water is measured by the parameters like BOD, COD, nutrients (N,P & K), and pathogens. The COD can occur due to industrialization pollutants. Eutrophication is caused due to the presence of N,P and K in the water bodies. The polluted water can be treated by chemical and physical methods. In physical treatment methods decontamination is done by using biological activities like biofiltration and bioaccumulation. In this study physical method (biofiltration) is adopted using ‘invasive bivalves’ as media. Wastewater can be decontaminated near to 85% using bivalves. The main types of the bivalves used in this study are dressina polymorpha, mytilus edulis and corbiculaflumina. These bivalves decrease the contamination level and these will encompass nutrient and phosphorus removal for recovery of eutrophic sites. They have also capacity of removing biological and chemical contaminants from water. The mechanism involved to reduce the contaminant concentration is biofiltration using bivalves.