RESEARCH ARTICLE Cost-effectiveness of boron (B) removal from irrigation water: an economic water treatment model (EWTM) for farmers to prevent boron toxicity Onur Can Türker 1 & Anıl Yakar 2 & Cengiz Türe 2 & Çağdaş Saz 2 Received: 19 November 2018 /Accepted: 23 April 2019 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract Protection of water sources which are used for irrigation has raised great interest in the last years among the environmental strategists due to potential water scarcity worldwide. Excessive boron (B) in irrigation water poses crucial environmental problems in the agricultural zones and it leads to toxicity symptoms in crops, as well as human beings. In the present research, economic water treatment models consist of dried common wetland plants (Lemna gibba, Phragmites australis, and Typha latifolia) and Lemna gibba accumulation was tested and assessed to create a simple, cost-effective, and eco-friendly method for B removal from irrigation water. Significant amount of B was removed from irrigation water samples by EWTMs and B concen- trations decreased below < 1 mg L -1 when the components were exposed to 4 and 8 mg L -1 initial B concentrations. Moreover, the results from batch adsorption study demonstrated that dried L. gibba had a higher B loading capacity compare to other dried plants, and B sorption capacity of dried L. gibba was found as 2.23 mg/g. The optimum pH value for sorption modules was found as neutral pH (pH = 7) in the batch adsorption experiment. Boron sorption from irrigation water samples fitted the Langmuir model, mostly B removed from irrigation water during the first 2 h of contact time. Techno-economic analysis indicated that EWTM is a promising method that appears to be both economically and ecologically feasible, and it can also provide a sustainable and practical strategy for farmers to prevent B toxicity in their agricultural zones. Keywords Irrigation water . Boron removal . Dried plants . Sorption . Lemna gibba Introduction Accelerated growth of the urban population and the growing trend in economic improvements together with intensive in- dustrialization have raised a growing demand on water sources which are used for irrigation purposes (Abourached et al. 2016; Dolan et al. 2018; Haghverdi et al. 2017). In this respect, the developed countries evaluate a key motivation associated with effective wastewater management that in- cludes a holistic approach associated with how water sources purify as environment friendly, cost-effective, and less com- plex (Li et al. 2018). Therefore, great attention in scientific literature has been shown such as the development of innova- tive, cost-effective, and less complex treatment methods and screening of new technological developments that integrated with treatment systems to control environmental pollution (Surendran et al. 2016; Xu et al. 2016). Boron is a widely used metalloid in various industries such as the production of cleaning products, glass, and agrochem- icals, and it is also used excessively in B-rich mine waste (Türker et al. 2014). These industries produce much effluent and discharge containing B with various concentrations hav- ing negative effects on the water environment if the B-rich wastewater would not efficiently treat (Hasenmueller and Criss 2013; Schoderboeck et al. 2011). Excessive B in the irrigation water is an important phenomenon because unremoved B can be easily released into the agricultural eco- systems, and a significant hazardous pathway is observed near discharged sites where B toxicity is presumably to be through and B origin symptoms in crops (Musvoto and de Lange Responsible editor: Gangrong Shi * Onur Can Türker octurker@aksaray.edu.tr 1 Faculty of Science and Letters, Department of Biology, Aksaray University, Aksaray, Turkey 2 Faculty of Science, Department of Biology, Eskişehir Technical University, Eskişehir, Turkey Environmental Science and Pollution Research https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-05268-x