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Penulis: Joko Sutrisno, Indah Nurhayati, Muhammad Al Kholif, dan Dinda Rahmaniasari
Abstract:
Untreated domestic wastewater can pollute the aquatic ecosystem. Vermifilter integrated with the Canna indica plant is one of the technological alternatives that can be used to treat domestic wastewater. One of affecting the performance of vermifilters is the vermibed media. Aim: This study examines the effect of vermibed material on the concentration of COD, TP, DO, and the pH value of domestic wastewater treated with vermifilter combined with Canna indica plants. Methodology and Results: The research was conducted on a laboratory scale with a continuous system using a plastic reactor dimension of 59 x 38 x 29 cm, which is filled with sand filter media, coconut fiber, gravel, and vermibed. The vermibed reactor consists of 4 reactors, including reactor 1 (R1) vegetable vermibed, reactor 2 (R2) sawdust, reactor 3 (R3) banana peel, and reactor 4 (R4) cow dung. The results showed that at the end of the research, the best performance is shown by reactor R2 that able to decrease COD by 94.81%, TP by 92.07%, DO increase 320.00%, pH 6.30±0.10. Vermibed sawdust (R2) can lower COD and TP and raise DO to treat domestic wastewater by combining vermifilter with the Canna indica plant. Conclusion, significance, and impact study: Vermifilter with Canna indica plant is an effective wastewater treatment in reducing COD and TP and increasing DO and pH value. This treatment is easy processing of operation and maintenance, does not require large land, can be done individually, and is environmentally friendly.
Keywords: Canna indica; Vermifilter; Vermibed.
INTRODUCTION
The majority of domestic waste is discharged directly into sewers without treatment, so it is feared that it can cause pollution of rivers, lakes, and other surface waters (Va et al., 2018). Domestic waste includes organic substances, pathogenic bacteria, heavy metals, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Untreated domestic waste can pollute the aquatic ecosystem (Hamad, 2020; Nurhayati et al., 2019). Office building wastewater in one city contains Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) 106 mg/L - 432 mg/L, Dissolved Oxygen (DO) 3.2 mg/L, and Total phosphate (TP) 3.66 mg/L (Va et al., 2018). Domestic waste treatment should use easy processing of operation and maintenance, does not require large land, can be done on an individual scale, and is environmentally friendly (Adugna et al., 2019; Samal et al., 2018b).
One alternative to treat domestic waste is to use vermifilters combined with aquatic plants. This technology is cost-efficient, and does not cause odors (Lourenço & Nunes, 2017), does not form sludge, is sustainable, is more efficient in degrading chemical and biological contaminants. (Samal et al., 2017b). Vermifilter produces vermicompost, useful as agricultural compost, and worm biomass as animal feed and fish (Bhat et al., 2020).
Vermifilter is a technology that combines the activity of earthworms and microbial to decompose waste (Kumar & Ghosh, 2019; Rustum et al., 2020). Earthworms encourage an increasing number of microbes in the vermifilter reactor (Samal et al., 2017) that will decompose organic substances, solids, heavy metals by eating, absorbed through the skin of walls, and decomposed by worms (Patil & Munavalli, 2018; Singh et al., 2019). The incorporation of vermifilter with aquatic plants can increase the degrading of organic substances. Plants’ roots can be overgrown with microbes (Samal et al., 2018a).
