Abstract

AMABILIS-SOSA, Leonel E.; SIEBE, Christina; MOELLER-CHAVEZ, Gabriela  and  DURAN-DOMINGUEZ-DE-BAZUA, María del Carmen. Mercury, chromium and lead removal using constructed wetlands inoculated with tolerant strains. Tecnol. cienc. agua [online]. 2015, vol.6, n.2, pp.21-34. ISSN 2007-2422.

The present investigation evaluated the performance of constructed wetlands inoculated with strains tolerant to heavy metals. The evaluation was conducted at the laboratory scale. These systems were compared to constructed wetlands having the same construction and operating conditions but containing conventional bacteria that is naturally present in the rhizosphere of the reactors. Both types of reactors were evaluated for the removal of mercury, lead and chromium in solution over 151 days of operations. By day 100, the systems inoculated with tolerant bacteria attained a stable removal percentage of roughly 50% for Hg, 57% for Pb and 45% for Cr. The reactors with conventional bacteria removed a percentage of heavy metals but the efficiency decreased as the days of operation increased and it did not reach stable values.

Keywords : Rhizospheric bacteria; tolerant strains; constructed wetlands; heavy metals.

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