Wednesday, January 5, 2011

VETIVER plant and wastewater treatment

Vetiveria zizanioides. This plant, commonly known as vetiver grass, is a clump grass originating in south India. There are many cultivars of vetiver grass but those originating in south India are sterile and non invasive. 
This plant have a long and strong root system that is usually use for soil erosion control, slope protection, agriculture improvement and also wastewater treatment.
The Vetiver grass will tolerate high levels of nitrates, phosphates, heavy metals, and agricultural chemicals.  Can be used for treating wastewater, rehabilitating mine tailings, stabilizing landfills and general rubbish dumps. The plants takes up the toxic materials and confines the contaminates to the effected area.


Here below some photos about applications for water treatment:





(photo: Truong, THE VETIVER SYSTEM
 FOR
IMPROVING WATER QUALITY)

I also use vetiver in a research for aquaculture wastewater treatment with floating wetlands.
And the Dick Grimshaw (Founder and Chairman of The Vetiver Network International) send me, when I was an university student, a lot of books and paper related to vetiver plants and his use. It was 1995.


More dwnld books and publications, photos and articles could be found at http://www.vetiver.org/g/pubs.htm


More on applications and all about THE VETIVER SYSTEM at www.vetiver.org

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

can vetiver grass be used in controlling floods?

Dave Toc PhD said...

Hi, Yes, it can be used for flooding control. I know many experience in this field. You can find more example in www.vetiver.org. Davide

Unknown said...

This is fabulous.Great post!Thank you for sharing.Keep it up!!!

- nutrients in wastewater

Dave Toc PhD said...

thank you france pope.

Unknown said...

I belong to India too, would like to know more about the wetlands for waste water treatment. Can we design a pilot plant or laboratory model for testing the efficiency of the same.

Dave Toc PhD said...

Hello Prabuddha gupta, yes we can be in touch and work on this project! Thanks for your kind words.

filtracion del agua potable aguavert said...

Yea, it's interesting that vetiver has a strong fibrous root system which rapidly penetrates deep into the soil and develops into a tightly knitted net. It holds the soil together and serves as an underground wall which not only retards waterflow but also allows it to seep into the soil. In addition, the root system helps to prevent gully erosion, both large and small sizes. The hedgerows will stop erosion caused by lower level contours which an earth embankment is not capable of.thanks all!~ Maria Thompson

Dave Toc PhD said...

Maria, thank you wery much for this enthusiastic and technical comment.

Anonymous said...

Hello Dave,
do you know where I can buy the plant in Europe? where did you buy it?

please, do not forward me to vetiver.org list of suppliers, it is not a valid one for a long time now.

with regards,
tihomira shatova

Dave Toc PhD said...

yes Tihomira, write me again at my e-mail and I will respond to you with the contact.
Davide