Mangrove plants as research subjects

ITS Campus, ITS News – civitas academica from Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) ceaselessly conducts research to improve the quality of human life. One of them is lecturer of the Department of Environmental Engineering, Harmin Sulistiyaning point ST MT PhD, which led research with his colleagues on biodesalination using mangrove plants and microorganisms to process sea water and brackish water into freshwater.

As an archipelago country, Indonesia has a vast supply of seawater and brackish water. With the correct method, the abundance of these resources can be utilized by the people of Indonesia to fulfill the needs of their fresh water. The limited source of fresh raw water, encouraged Harmin with his team to do this research.

Technology that is being developed by Harmin and his team is a biodesalination technology that uses the principle of phytotechnology, namely a method that utilizes plants with microorganisms in its roots to handle cases of pollution in water. On this occasion, the plant used is a mangrove plant with the help of microorganisms in a reed bed system. “So that in this system there are physical, chemical, and biological processes to be able to put aside salinity on brackish water,” explains alumnus of the Departement of Environmental Engineering ITS.

Harmin also added that this biodesalination technology has a lower operational cost. “Many technologies desalination seawater into freshwater, but their operating costs are higher. Like membrane technology,” said this woman from Malang.

In the process, the lecturer in the field of environmental remediation explains that the roots of mangrove plants with the help of microorganisms can absorb and accumulate existing ions in water. “There is a process of uptake of Na and Cl ions by mangrove plants, as well as filtration process by the media of sand and gravel used in the reed bed reactor,” she said.

Besides being able to absorb ions in water, according to Harmin, these microorganisms can make the process of elimination of salinity of water more stable. “The bacteria we use are Halobacterium, so it can make a more stable salinity allowance,” explained Harmin.

Harmin Sulistiyaning Point of ST MT Ph.D. (center) with his partners Ipung Fitri Purwanti ST MT Ph.D. (left) and Tri Cahyo Puspaningrum (right)

The research conducted in the Environmental Remediation Laboratory of The Departement of Environmental Engineering ITS has been running for two years and has been able to decrease water salinity significantly. “It can be seen that the system can reduce the initial salinity of water by 25 per mile to 1.9 per mile,” said the lecturer who born in 1975.

Nevertheless, Harmin admitted that the water with this level of salinity is still classified as brackish water. So the research will continue to be able to reduce the salinity of water to less than 0.05 per mile which is the level of salinity for freshwater. “This research continues for its third year in 2020,” said Harmin.

In their third year of research with her colleagues, Harmin hopes that research can continue with the decentralization and national funds. This technology is also planned to be combined with other methods “maybe by electrolysis or with ion exchange, to be applied,” she concluded. (ri/rev/ ITS Public Relations)