Tekoğul, H., 2023. Wastewater treatment of solid waste leachate and production of proteinaceous biomass using duckweed vegetation (Lemna minor). Journal of Coastal Research, 39(2), 296–302. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208.

Phytoremediation provides cost–effective wastewater treatment and recovery of wastewater as rich biomass by aquatic plants and produces bioenergy and various important by-products. This study was carried out to treat solid waste leachate with Lemna minor L. and convert wastewater nutrients into protein-rich biomass by this aquatic plant. To create the experimental setups, L. minor was produced in wastewater at six dilution ratios: 100% (T₁), 75% (T₂), 50% (T₃), 25% (T₄), Hoagland medium with Lemna (T_5c), and 100% wastewater without Lemna (T₆). At the end of the 45-day study,the pH 7.00 (T_5c) and 8.81, the protein yield rate (crude protein) in the trial groups was found to be T₁ = 40.10%, T₂ = 67.53%, T₃ = 75.24%, T₄ = 42.72%, and T_5c = 85.00%. In the study, the T₃ group showed the best performance in terms of initial weight, final weight, total biomass, specific growth rate, relative growth rate, and protein ratio in wastewater groups. The highest and lowest removal rates in leachate ranged between 85.40% (T₄) and 56.50% (T₁) for the NH₄ ⁺-N value, 14.20% (T₄) and 4.73% (T₂) for NO₂-N, 16.96% (T₄) and 6.53% (T₃) for NO₃-N, and 23.10% (T₃) and 16.08% (T₁) for PO₄^–3-P. The total biomass of the trial groups showed an average 50.55% increase from the baseline level. Although 46% biomass was obtained in the Hoagland medium with vegetative growth, a very high biomass of 61% was obtained in the T₃ group of solid waste leachate containing dilute wastewater. As a result, phytoremediation is recommended as a solid option for the management of wastewater resources. This efficiency has shown that aquatic plants can be used in the treatment of wastewater and the obtained high protein biomass can be used in various ways, such as animal feed and bioenergy.