Petroliferous wastewaters treatment with water hyacinths (Raffinerie de Provence, France): Experimental statement

The production and purification abilities of the water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms., were tested on petrochemical wastewaters at Raffinerie de Provence, Total (La Mède, France), in controlled and in situ experiments. The mean production obtained was of about 6.1 g (dry weight) day⁻¹ m⁻² (10-fold lower than those obtained on paper industry effluent), and can be explained by the high salinity and pH of the effluent, and the negative effect of hydrocarbons. In comparison with the control pond, the water hyacinth system induced a rapid settlement effect. Finally, the removal gains due to the water hyacinths system were about 26% for the suspended solids (i.e. 40.1 kg day⁻¹), 28% for the total hydrocarbons (i.e. 17.2 kg day⁻¹) and 18% for the total organic carbon (i.e. 27 kg day⁻¹).