IJSRCH18326 | Received : 16 August 2018 | Accepted : 27 August 2018 | July-August-2018 [ 3 (2) : 60-69] International Journal of Scientific Research in Chemistry (IJSRCH) | Online ISSN: 2456-8457 © 2018 IJSRCH | Volume 3 | Issue 2 60 Simultaneous Phytoremediation of Cr(VI) and Phenol Using Aquatic Macrophyte Water Hyacinth : Effect of PH and Concentrations Dr. Ankur Gupta 1 , Chandrajit Balomajumder 2 1 Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttrakhand, India 2 Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttrakhand, India ABSTRACT In this study removal of Cr(VI) and phenol was carried out in single and binary synthetic solution using the phytoremediation process. For this purpose, plants were grown in photosynthesis chamber with 12 h light and 12 h dark period. The plants were grown in nutrient solution accompanied with Cr(VI) and phenol. The various initial concentrations of Cr(VI) (5, 10, 15, 20 mg/L) and phenol (10, 20, 30, 40, 50 mg/L) in single component synthetic solution of Cr(VI) and phenol and binary solution of Cr(VI) containing Cr(VI) and phenol in (1:2) ratio was used for the experimentation. The effect of initial concentrations o to the specific growth rate of the plant was investigated. The effect of pH on to the percentage removal of Cr(VI) in binary solution was also investigated. Keywords : Water Hyacinth, Binary Solution, Chlorophyll, Phytoremediation, Specific Growth Rate. I. INTRODUCTION The discharge of wastewater from various industries to the main water bodies like river is the main focus of research now a days. The industrial effluents contain mainly toxic heavy metals and organic compounds. Industrial pollution is a potential threat affecting the water bodies, soil and air, which ultimately affects the whole ecosystem. Among these heavy metals and organic compounds, pollution caused by chromium (Cr) and phenol (C6H5OH) is of considerable concern because these are used in various industrial processes such as electroplating, leather tanning, textile, paints and pigments, paper, wood preservation and car manufacturing extra (Lin et al., 2009; Garg et al., 2013; Gunasundari et al., 2013). Chromium occurs in aqueous systems in two oxidation states trivalent [Cr 3+ and CrOH 2+ ] and hexavalent [HCrO4 - and Cr2O7 2- ] out of which hexavalent chromium is most toxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic to the living organism (Thinh et al., 2013; Talreja et al., 2014; Kumar et al. 2009). Trivalent, Cr(III) can be oxidized to hexavalent, Cr(VI) which is more mobile and toxic than Cr(III). Cr(VI) entered into the human body causes respiratory tract and lung carcinoma, epigastric pain, vomiting, nausea, corrosion of the skin and severe diarrhoea. Among the various harmful and toxic organic compounds like dyes, pesticides and fluorine, phenol is most toxic to the environment. Phenol is toxic aromatic organic compound and weak biodegradable pollutant. Exposure of phenol causes gastrointestinal disorder, lung damage, liver damage, kidney damage, heart attack and finally can lead to death (Gupta and Balomajumder 2015a; Gupta and Balomajumder 2015b; Gupta and Balomajumder 2015c). The US Environmental protection agency (US