YOUNG SCHOLARS IN EARTH & ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Vetiver plantlets in aerated system degrade phenol in illegally dumped industrial wastewater by phytochemical and rhizomicrobial degradation Tanapon Phenrat 1,2 & Pimpawat Teeratitayangkul 1,2 & Isarawut Prasertsung 3 & Rattapoohm Parichatprecha 4 & Peerapong Jitsangiam 5 & Narong Chomchalow 6 & Siriwan Wichai 2,7 Received: 24 April 2016 /Accepted: 13 September 2016 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016 Abstract This research evaluated the feasibility of using vet- iver plantlets (Vetiveria zizanioides (L.) Nash) on a floating platform with aeration to degrade phenol (500 mg/L) in ille- gally dumped industrial wastewater (IDIWW). The IDIWW sample was from the most infamous illegal dumping site at Nong Nae subdistrict, Phanom Sarakham district, Chachoengsao province, Thailand. Laboratory results sug- gested that phenol degradation by vetiver involves two phases: Phase I, phytopolymerization and phyto-oxidation assisted by root-produced peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) and peroxidase (POD), followed by phase II, a combination of phase I with enhanced rhizomicrobial degradation. The first 360–400 h of phenol degradation were dominated by phytopolymerization and phyto-oxidation yielding particulate polyphenols (PPP) or particulate organic matter (POM) as by-products, while phe- nol decreased to around 145 mg/L. In Phase II, synergistically, rhizomicrobial growth was ∼100-folds greater on the roots of the vetiver plantlets than in the IDIWW and participated in the microbial degradation of phenol at this lower phenol concen- tration, increasing the phenol degradation rate by more than three folds. This combination of phytochemical and rhizomicrobiological processes eliminated phenol in IDIWW in less than 766 h (32 days), while without the vetiver plant- lets, phenol degradation by aerated microbial degradation alone may require 235 days. To our knowledge, this is the first that systematically reveals the complete phenol degradation mechanism by vetiver plantlets in real aerated wastewater. Keywords Phenol . Root-produced peroxide and peroxidase . Rhizomicrobial degradation . Phytoremediation . Illegal dumping . Wastewater Submitted to Environmental Science Pollution Research Special Issue on BYoung Scholars in Earth and Environmental Sciences^ Responsible Editor: Gerald Thouand Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11356-016-7707-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Tanapon Phenrat pomphenrat@gmail.com * Siriwan Wichai siriwanwichai@nu.ac.th 1 Research Unit for Integrated Natural Resources Remediation and Reclamation (IN3R), Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Naresuan University, Phitsanulok, Thailand 2 Center of Excellence for Sustainability of Health, Environment and Industry (SHEI), Faculty of Engineering, Naresuan University, Phitsanulok, Thailand 3 Chemical Engineering Program, Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Naresuan University, Phitsanulok 65000, Thailand 4 Excellent Center for Road and Railway Innovation (NURRI), Faculty of Engineering, Naresuan University, Phitsanulok, Thailand 5 Department of Civil Engineering, Curtin University, Perth, Australia 6 Office of the Royal Development Projects Boards, Bangkok, Thailand 7 Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Medical Science, Naresuan University, Phitsanulok, Thailand Environ Sci Pollut Res DOI 10.1007/s11356-016-7707-9