Vascular plants for water pollution control and renewable sources of energy

Conference · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1980

OSTI ID:5264855

Wolverton, B C; McDonald, R C

Vascular aquatic plants have demonstrated their ability to remove pollutants from domestic and chemical wastewaters. Plants such as the water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), duckweed (Lemna sp., Spirodela sp., and Wolffia sp.), and cattail (Typha sp.) thrive in nutrient-rich waters and produce tremendous quantities of biomass under favorable climatic conditions. This method of wastewater treatment is currently being used exclusively at NASA's National Space Technology Laboratories (NSTL) with water hyacinths and duckweed to treat daily over 759 m/sup 3/ of domestic wastewater and 114 m/sup 3/ of chemical wastewater in four separate systems. The harvested plants from these systems have been used in various biomass utilization projects over the past five years. In laboratory batch studies of digesting vascular plants with anaerobic filters, NASA has found that 140 to 280 liters methane per kg dry weight can be obtained in an average of 23 days. Current NASA projects at NSTL seek to expand the technology required to design energy systems which produce methane through bioconversion with anaerobic filters and use the mineral residue as a nutrient source for producing new biomass.

• OSTI ID: 5264855
• Report Number(s): CONF-800482-4
• Resource Relation: Conference: Bio-energy world congress and exposition, Atlanta, GA, USA, 21 Apr 1980
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
METHANE
BIOSYNTHESIS
NASA
WASTE MANAGEMENT
PLANTS
BIOCONVERSION
WATER POLLUTION CONTROL
WASTE WATER
BIODEGRADATION
WATER TREATMENT
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
ENERGY SOURCES
GRASS
USES
WATER HYACINTHS
ALKANES
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CRYOGENIC FLUIDS
DECOMPOSITION
ECOSYSTEMS
FLUIDS
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
LIQUID WASTES
MANAGEMENT
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION CONTROL
SYNTHESIS
US ORGANIZATIONS
WASTES
WATER
140504* - Solar Energy Conversion- Biomass Production & Conversion- (-1989)
320305 - Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization- Industrial & Agricultural Processes- Industrial Waste Management
090122 - Hydrocarbon Fuels- Preparation from Wastes or Biomass- (1976-1989)