Estudo do potencial de remoção do cobre pela Pistia Stratiotes L. em efluente sintético da indústria de papel e celulose

Abstract

The pulp production sector is important for the base of the national economy, given the great availability of forest resources in the country. However, these companies generate a large volume of effluent. The presence of metal ions from chemical reagents, wood, wood bark, chips and lime and the toxicity to water courses caused by effluents from the pulp industry, become a concern and, therefore, the development of treatment techniques for effluents from this industry. The present study aimed to evaluate the tolerance of the aquatic macrophyte species Pistia stratiotes L. in synthetic effluent contaminated with copper. Aquatic macrophyte are an alternative in the treatment of effluents and have been shown to be a good option for the phytoremediation of chemical elements contained in domestic and industrial effluents. Phytoremediation is a technique of easy access and application, widely used in contaminated environments. Aquatic macrophytes Pistia stratiotes L. were collected from a fish tank located in the municipality of Monte Carmelo – MG and transported to a greenhouse located on Campus Araras - Monte Carmelo belonging to the Institute of Agricultural Sciences of the Federal University from Uberlândia. The synthetic effluent was prepared to simulate an effluent generated in the pulp and paper industry containing the copper metal in increasing concentrations. The experiment was performed in triplicate and the contact time evaluated was 14 days. The aquatic macrophyte was shown to be tolerant to copper with an initial average concentration of 2.68 mg L-1, removing the metal from the synthetic effluent, while for an initial average concentration of 10.29 mg L-1 it was more sensitive in terms of tolerance, but did the removal of approximately 97.22% of the metal in the synthetic effluent.