Tolerance to hydraulic and organic load fluctuations in constructed wetlands

2007 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 39-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Masi ◽  
N. Martinuzzi ◽  
R. Bresciani ◽  
L. Giovannelli ◽  
G. Conte

This paper describes a two-year performance evaluation of four different constructed wetland (CW) treatment systems designed by IRIDRA Srl, located in central Italy. All four CW systems were established to treat wastewater effluent from different tourist activities: (1) one single-stage CW for secondary treatment of domestic wastewater (30 p.e.) at a holiday farm site; (2) a hybrid compact system consisting of two stages, a horizontal flow (HF) system followed by a vertical flow (VF) system for the secondary treatment of effluent from a 140 p.e. tourist resort; (3) a single-stage vertical flow (VF) CW for a 100 p.e. mountain shelter; and (4) a pair of single-stage, HF CWs for the secondary treatment of segregated grey and black water produced by an 80 p.e. camping site. These tourism facilities are located in remote areas and share some common characteristics concerning their water management: they have high variability of water consumption and wastewater flow, depending on the season, weather and weekly regularities; they have no connection to a public sewer and most sites are located in a sensitive environment. Total suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), ammonium (N-NH+4), nitrate (N-NOx), total nitrogen (Ntot), total phosphorus (Ptot), total coliform (TC), faecal coliform (FC), E. coli removal efficiencies for all four CW systems are presented. The results from this study demonstrate the potential of CWs as a suitable technology for treating wastewater from tourism facilities in remote areas. A very efficient COD reduction (83–95%) and pathogen elimination (3–5 logs) have been achieved. Furthermore, the CWs are easily maintained, robust (not sensitive to peak flows), constructed with local materials, and operate with relatively low cost.

2013 ◽  
Vol 68 (7) ◽  
pp. 1461-1467 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Prigent ◽  
J. Paing ◽  
Y. Andres ◽  
F. Chazarenc

Upgrades to enhance nitrogen removal were tested in a 2 year old pilot vertical flow constructed wetland in spring and summer periods. The effects of a saturated layer and of recirculation were tested in particular. Two pilots (L = 2 m, W = 1.25 m, H = 1.2 m), filled with expanded schist (Mayennite®), were designed with hydraulic saturated layers of 20 and 40 cm at the bottom. Each pilot was fed with raw domestic wastewater under field conditions according to a hydraulic load of 15–38 cm d−1 (i.e. 158–401 g COD (chemical oxygen demand) m−2 d−1) and to recirculation rates ranging from 0% up to 150%. The initial load during the first 2 years of operation resulted in an incomplete mineralized accumulated sludge leading to total suspended solids (TSS), COD and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) release. A 40 cm hydraulic saturated layer enabled an increase of 5–10% total nitrogen (TN) removal compared to a 20 cm saturated layer. Recirculation allowed the dilution of raw wastewater and enhanced nitrification in a single stage. A design of 1.8 m² pe−1 (48 cm d−1, 191 g COD m−2 d−1) with a 40 cm saturated layer and 100% recirculation enabled the French standard D4 (35 mg TSS L−1, 125 mg COD L−1, 25 mg BOD5 L−1), nitrogen concentrations below 20 mg TKN (total Kjeldahl nitrogen) L−1 and 50 mg TN L−1, to be met.


2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 137-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Kantawanichkul ◽  
P. Neamkam ◽  
R.B.E. Shutes

Pig farm wastewater creates various problems in many areas throughout Thailand. Constructed wetland systems are an appropriate, low cost treatment option for tropical countries such as Thailand. In this study, a combined system (a vertical flow bed planted with Cyperus flabelliformis over a horizontal flow sand bed without plants) was used to treat settled pig farm wastewater . This system is suitable for using in farms where land is limited. The average COD and nitrogen loading rate of the vegetated vertical flow bed were 105 g/m2.d and 11 g/m2.d respectively. The wastewater was fed intermittently at intervals of 4 hours with a hydraulic loading rate of 3.7 cm/d. The recirculation of the effluent increased total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiency from 71% to 85%. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) removal efficiencies were 95% and 98%. Nitrification was significant in vertical flow Cyperus bed, and the concentration of nitrate increased by a factor of 140. The horizontal flow sand bed enhanced COD removal and nitrate reduction was 60%. Plant uptake of nitrogen was 1.1 g N/m2.d or dry biomass production was 2.8 kg/m2 over 100 days.


Author(s):  
Rajani Ghaju Shrestha ◽  
Daisuke Inoue ◽  
Michihiko Ike

Abstract A constructed wetland (CW) is a low-cost, eco-friendly, easy-to-maintain, and widely applicable technology for treating various pollutants in the waste landfill leachate. This study determined the effects of the selection and compiling strategy of substrates used in CWs on the treatment performance of a synthetic leachate containing bisphenol A (BPA) as a representative recalcitrant pollutant. We operated five types of lab-scale vertical-flow CWs using only gravel (CW1), a sandwich of gravel with activated carbon (CW2) or brick crumbs (CW3), and two-stage hybrid CWs using gravel in one column and activated carbon (CW4) or brick crumbs (CW5) in another to treat synthetic leachate containing BPA in a 7-d sequential batch mode for 5 weeks. CWs using activated carbon (CW2 and CW4) effectively removed ammonium nitrogen (NH4-N) (99–100%), chemical oxygen demand (COD) (93–100%), and BPA (100%), indicating that the high adsorption capacity of activated carbon was the main mechanism involved in their removal. CW5 also exhibited higher pollutant removal efficiencies (NH4-N: 94–99%, COD: 89–98%, BPA: 89–100%) than single-column CWs (CW1 and CW3) (NH4-N: 76–100%, COD: 84–100%, BPA: 51–100%). This indicates the importance of the compiling strategy along with the selection of an appropriate substrate to improve the pollutant removal capability of CWs.


2018 ◽  
Vol 78 (12) ◽  
pp. 2639-2646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita M. Rugaika ◽  
Damian Kajunguri ◽  
Rob Van Deun ◽  
Bart Van der Bruggen ◽  
Karoli N. Njau

Abstract Pilot-scale constructed wetlands (CWs) that allowed wastewater to flow with high interstitial velocities in a controlled environment were used to evaluate the possibility of using mass transfer approach to design horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands (HSSF-CWs) treating waste stabilisation ponds (WSPs) effluent. Since CW design considers temperature which is irrelevant in tropics, mass transfer approach could improve the design. HSSF-CWs were operated in batch recycle mode as continuous stirred tank reactors (CSTR) at different interstitial velocities. The overall removal rate constants of chemical oxygen demand (COD) at various interstitial velocities were evaluated in mesocosms that received pretreated domestic wastewater. The mean overall removal rate constants were 0.43, 0.69, 0.74 and 0.73 d−1 corresponding to interstitial velocities of 15.43, 36, 56.57 and 72 md−1, respectively. Results showed that the interstitial velocities up to 36 md−1 represented a range where mass transfer effect was significant and, above it, insignificant to the COD removal process. Since WSPs effluent has high flow rates and low organic load, it is possible to induce high interstitial velocities in a HSSF-CW treating this effluent, without clogging and overflow. The performance of these HSSF for tertiary treatment in tropical areas could be improved by considering flow velocity when designing.


2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 181-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Koottatep ◽  
C. Polprasert ◽  
N. T.K. Oanh ◽  
U. Heinss ◽  
A. Montangero ◽  
...  

Constructed wetlands (CWs) have been proven to be an effective low-cost treatment system, which utilizes the interactions of emergent plants and microorganisms in the removal of pollutants. CWs for wastewater treatment are normally designed and operated in horizontal-flow patterns, namely, free-water surface or subsurface flow, while a vertical-flow operation is normally used to treat sludge or septage having high solid contents. In this study, three pilot-scale CW beds, each with a surface area of 25 m2, having 65 cm sand-gravel substrata, supported by ventilated-drainage system and planting with narrow-leave cattails (Typha augustifolia), were fed with septage collected from Bangkok city, Thailand. To operate in a vertical-flow mode, the septage was uniformly distributed on the surface of the CW units. During the first year of operation, the CWs were operated at the solid loading rates (SLR) and application frequencies of, respectively, 80-500 kg total solid (TS)/m2.yr and 1-2 times weekly. It was found that the SLR of 250 kg TS/m2.yr resulted in the highest TS, total chemical oxygen demand (TCOD) and total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) removal of 80, 96 and 92%, respectively. The TS contents of the dewatered septage on the CW beds were increased from 1-2% to 30-60% within an operation cycle. Because of the vertical-flow mode of operation and with the effectiveness of the ventilation pipes, there were high degrees of nitrification occurring in the CW beds. The nitrate (NO3) contents in the CW percolate were 180-250 mg/L, while the raw septage had NO3 contents less than 10 mg/L. Due to rapid flow-through of the percolates, there was little liquid retained in the CW beds, causing the cattail plants to wilt, especially during the dry season. To reduce the wilting effects, the operating strategies in the second year were modified by ponding the percolate in the CW beds for periods of 2 and 6 days prior to discharge. This operating strategy was found beneficial not only for mitigating plant wilting, but also for increasing N removal through enhanced denitrification activities in the CW beds. During these 2 year operations, the dewatered septage was not removed from the CW beds and no adverse effects on the septage dewatering efficiency were observed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 83 (5) ◽  
pp. 35-44
Author(s):  
Z. M. Hanafiah ◽  
W. H. M. W. Mohtar ◽  
N. A. Bachi' ◽  
N. A. Abdullah ◽  
M. Z. Abdullah ◽  
...  

Sewage treatment plants (STP) in Malaysia are designed to treat a load of contaminants according to the level of concentration for chemical oxygen demand (COD) and nitrogen ammonia (NH3-N) of 250 mg/L and 30 mg/L, respectively. However, studies show that the organic load of Malaysian wastewater is low and even temporarily fluctuates resulting in the low effectiveness of treatment especially in ammonia removal and consequently cause effluents that do not undergo proper treatment to be released into the environment. Therefore, this study aims to identify concentrations of COD and NH3-N in the influent of urban domestic wastewater along with other physico-chemical characteristics. Two locations of the STP were chosen based on the urban area with different catchment sizes for a population equivalent (PE) 60,000 for the first STP (LRK#1), and 150,000 for the second STP (LRK#2). These parameters include pH, temperature, conductivity, turbidity, total suspended solids (TSS), nitrogen nitrate (NO3-N), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) as well as heavy metals such as Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu), Nickel (Ni), Lead (Pb), and Zinc (Zn). The sampling and analysis methods used the guidelines recommended in the American Public Health Association (APHA). The results give the highest average COD concentrations for the LRK#1 and LRK#2 are 180.5 mg/L and 380.9 mg/L, respectively. The highest NH3-N concentrations were 33.53 mg/L for LRK#1 and 31.63 mg/L for LRK#2. Overall, the wastewater physico-chemical characteristics of both treatment plants show wastewater in the medium and low concentration categories.


2015 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Paing ◽  
V. Serdobbel ◽  
M. Welschbillig ◽  
M. Calvez ◽  
V. Gagnon ◽  
...  

Abstract This study aimed at determining the treatment performances of a full-scale vertical flow constructed wetlands designed to treat wastewater from a food-processing industry (cookie factory), and to study the influence of the organic loading rate. The full-scale treatment plant was designed with a first vertical stage of 630 m², a second vertical stage of 473 m² equipped with a recirculation system and followed by a final horizontal stage of 440 m². The plant was commissioned in 2011, and was operated at different loading rates during 16 months for the purpose of this study. Treatment performances were determined by 24 hour composite samples. The mean concentration of the raw effluent was 8,548 mg.L−1 chemical oxygen demand (COD), 4,334 mg.L−1 biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), and 2,069 mg.L−1 suspended solids (SS). Despite low nutrients content with a BOD5/N/P ratio of 100/1.8/0.5, lower than optimum for biological degradation (known as 100/5/1), mean removal performances were very high with 98% for COD, 99% for BOD5 and SS for the two vertical stages. The increasing of the organic load from 50 g.m−2.d−1 COD to 237 g.m−2.d−1 COD (on the first stage) did not affect removal performances. The mean quality of effluent reached French standards (COD < 125 mg.L−1, BOD5 < 25 mg.L−1, SS < 35 mg.L−1).


2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (10) ◽  
pp. 1536-1544 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. de Rozari ◽  
M. Greenway ◽  
A. El Hanandeh

Constructed wetland ecotechnologies (CWEs) are a promising solution to effectively treat domestic wastewater in developing countries at low cost. This paper reports the findings of the effectiveness of sand media amended with woody biochar and two plants species (Melaleuca quinquenervia and Cymbopogon citratus) in removing biological oxygen demand (BOD5), suspended solids and coliforms. The experimental design consisted of 21 vertical flow (VF) mesocosms. There were seven media treatments using sand amended with varying proportions of biochar. During the first 8 months, the mesocosms were loaded with secondary clarified wastewater (SCW) then septage. The influent had a 4-day hydraulic retention time. Samples were monitored for BOD5, total suspended solids (TSS), total volatile solids (TVS), total coliforms and faecal coliforms. In the first 8 months, there were no significant performance differences between media treatments in the outflow concentrations of BOD5, TSS and TVS. The significant differences occurred during the last 3 months; using septage with biochar additions performed better than pure sand. For coliforms, the significant differences occurred after 6 months. In conclusion, the addition of biochar was not effective for SCW. The VF mesocosms system proved to be more effective in removing BOD5, TSS, TVS and coliforms when septage was loaded into the media.


2015 ◽  
Vol 72 (11) ◽  
pp. 1973-1980 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdalrahman D. Alsulaili ◽  
Mohamed F. Hamoda

Survey of schools of different education levels (primary, intermediate and secondary) in Kuwait showed an average greywater generation rate of 7.3 L/p/d and varied in the range of 2.9–16 l/p/d, reflecting the school level of education (i.e. student age). The highest rates were observed for primary schools while the lowest rates were observed in secondary schools where students are more mature and use the water more wisely. The greywater characteristics indicated waste with low chemical oxygen demand (COD) and 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) values but relatively high solids, conductivity, and sodium content due to excessive use of hand soap. Total coliform values ranged between 89 and 352 most probable number (MPN)/mL with an average of 196 MPN/mL while no fecal coliform values were detected. Greywater collected from schools is classified as light greywater and contains much lower levels of organic matter and nutrients compared to residential greywater and domestic wastewater. It is suitable for non-potable reuse after minimal treatment since microbial contamination may pose a serious threat to health if greywater comes into contact with humans. It also provides a good opportunity for reuse in toilet flushing since it can be easily collected from wash sinks and fountains, as major sources, and recycled.


2016 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
pp. 516-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoann Millot ◽  
Stéphane Troesch ◽  
Dirk Esser ◽  
Pascal Molle ◽  
Ania Morvannou ◽  
...  

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