Abstract

Utilization of duckweed (DW) in nutrient removal from agricultural waste water and producing alternative economic animal fodder

Author(s): Hossam F. Nassar, Ahmed M. Shaban, Samah M. Bassem and Fagr Kh. Abdel-Gawad

Agriculture wastewater can be regarded as a water resource with increasing importance in countries with arid climate conditions and water scarcity like Egypt. Therefore, purification and reuse is an attractive solution which serves a dual purpose: low-cost sanitation and reuse of the available resources. Duckweed are small, floating aquatic plants belonging to the family Lemnaceae. Most common duckweed species reproduce asexually, i.e. without flowers or seeds. Under favorable conditions duckweed can reproduce faster than any other higher land plant (Lemna can double its weight in one day). In this study, DW was used for agricultural drain wastewater purification and for producing an economic animal fodder rich in protein content. The achieved values of nutrient (Phosphorus and Nitrogen) removal from raw water in the effluent of duckweed pond (DWP) operated at 10 days hydraulic detention times (HDT) were 76.9% and 68.3% respectively on average. Whereas, the investigated fresh and dry weight yield were about 745.8 and108 kg/ha/d on average, respectively. The dry matter values were ranged from 5.5 to 7.2 with an average value of 6.1%. The contents of protein and phosphorus of such dry matter were 28.1 % and 0.83 %. The total phosphorus in the dry matter of the duckweed was 0. 83 % on average. The results investigated that duckweed is rich in protein and highly digestible; from that perspective it is interesting as fish and cattle fodder. So duckweed can supplement inexpensive feeds like broken rice, rice bran and cassava as an alternative feed ingredient for poultry and fish. Even a partial replacement of livestock feeds with duckweed can save farmers money.

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