Design considerations for waste water treatment with water hyacinth E. Crassipes

Abstract

An attempt to provide a design methodology for wastewater treatment in water hyacinth ponds Is tried in the following lines. Literature data is complemented with growth rate and yield measurements to develop a performance equation with two dimensioniess groups indicating the system capacity for nutrient removal. It is concluded that organic loads up to 10 Kg BOD Ha⁻¹ d⁻¹ are critical to obtain nitrogen removal efficencies greater than 80%. Nutrient removal can be increased if water hyacinth ponds are operated as maturation ponds.