Reusing of Real Textile Wastewater After Treatment by Gamma Irradiation: Implications on the Growth of Capsicum Frutescens Plant

Abstract This investigation concentrates on the possibility of using gamma radiation for the decomposition of textile wastewater and reuse as irrigation water. The real wastewater sample was irradiated at four different radiation doses of 3, 5, 8, and 10 kGy. After irradiation at 8–10 KGy, physicochemical parameters, i.e., pH, turbidity, EC, total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), biological oxygen demand (BOD5), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) have decreased sharply and approached to the expected value. At maximum 10 KGy radiation dose, 59.0 % BOD5 and 71.6 % COD removal have been achieved, accelerating the enhancement in biodegradability index (BOD5/COD, 0.43). Ammonium and total nitrogen have improved up to 87.0 % and 94.5 % after irradiation at 10 KGy doses. These treated textile wastewater samples were reused to grow Capsicum frutescens plants to inspect the fertility responses. When Capsicum plants were nourished by textile wastewater irradiated at 8–10 kGy, the dry masses of the fruits, moisture content, root length, average plant height, average number of leaves, and total number of fruits were increased in comparison to those plants nourished by simply water and raw wastewater. The elemental analysis confirmed that the heavy metals concentration in Capsicum fruits decreased gradually with higher radiation doses. Helpful macro and micronutrients for plant production such as Na, K, and Mg were raised at a sufficient level of 47.7 %, 23.5 %, and 63.8 % for 10 KGy, whereas the highest 50.0 % increase in Ca concentration was found for 8 KGy fruit samples.