Phyto-polishing of leachate with Malaysian native bulrush: Pollutant removal and kinetics study

With growing populations and widespread use of uncontrolled landfills, leachate poses significant environmental risks, while conventional treatments are costly and often ineffective. This research presents the application of a native plant of Scirpus grossus for phytoremediation in a batch experiment through the direct application of leachate with mass ratios of 15, 20, 35 and 100 mg COD/g plant in phytoremediation performance test for two months. Results showed the plant could survive in leachate concentrations up to 100 mg COD/g plant, with relative growth rates of 1.27 %, 1.42 %, 1.02 % and 0.88 % for concentrations of 15, 20, 35 and 100 mg COD/g plant, respectively. The plant demonstrated effective pollutant removal, with COD removal rates of 85.7 %, 93.4 %, 92.5 % and 63.6 % for the same mass ratios. The kinetic model developed indicated that COD removal followed first-order kinetics. The highest absorption rate was found at 20 mg COD/g plant (0.0538 day^-1). This study offers the first in-depth assessment of S. grossus for leachate phytoremediation in Malaysian ecosystems, addressing a key gap in remediation research.