Phytoaccumulation of chromium (Vi) using Ipomoea Aquatica (kangkung air)

Treatment and disposal of heavy metal in the industrial effluents, especially in wastewater is a major concern to the environmentalists. One of such polluting heavy metal is hexavalent chromium, Cr (VI), which is emanated from tanning and metal processing industries and is accepted as carcinogen. The toxic hexavalent chromium is highly mobile where as its trivalent counterpart, Cr (III) is less mobile and less toxic. Hence, treatment of hexavalent chromium requires a reduction process. Most of chemical reduction processes with precipitation generates a huge quantity of sludge which are difficult to dispose of and causing secondary pollution to the environment. The research is about reducing hexavalent chromium present in the Ipomoea aquatic (water spinach) plant. The phytoremediation technology is used to treat the contaminated water containing higher amount of chromium. In this study, Ipomoea aquatic has been used to remediate the chromium contaminated water. The accumulation of chromium and removal efficiency of chromium by Ipomoea aquatic was carried out in this research. Potassium dichromate solution was directly added to the water in each experimental pot at three different wetland reactor with chromium concentration levels from 0, 20 and 50 mg/L. In this work, Cr in the Ipomoea aquatic (water spinach) plant were analysed accordingly, through Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS) using dilution method. Based on the results obtained, it can be concluded that Ipomoea aquatic can accumulate chromium in leaves, stems and roots.