Current Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Evaluating Wastewater Treatment Efficiency of Two Field Scale Subsurface Flow Constructed Wetlands


Affiliations
1 International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru 502 324, India
 

Constructed wetlands (CWs) are human-made systems designed to treat a variety of industrial, domestic and agricultural wastewaters. We study here the efficiency of domestic wastewater treatment by two field scale subsurface flow CWs under different hydraulic loading rates (HLRs). Each CW had inlet and outlet chamber for wastewater collection with Pistia stratiotes (water lettuce), two treatment sections consisting of sand and gravel media and four plant species Typha latifolia (Broadleaf cattail) and Cymbopogon citratus (lemon grass - first CW) and (Pennisetum purpureum schum and Pennisetum americanum L (Hybrid napier) and Urochloa mutica (Paragrass - second CW). The wastewater source was from a residential urban colony. The HLRs for the first and second CW for a three-month period averaged 4.45 cm/day and 5.77 cm/day respectively. The CW was monitored for quality of wastewater inflows and outflows and nutrient accumulation in plants and sand media. Results showed that the chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), total nitrogen and total phosphate removals in the first and second CW over a three-month period averaged 42%, 74%, 39% and 41% and 34%, 82%, 14% and 35% respectively. Both the CWs showed similar rates of TSS removal irrespective of the type of wetland plant species. Over the three-month period, average COD, total nitrogen and the phosphate removals were greater in the first CW compared to the second CW. These results confirm the efficacy of field scale subsurface flow CWs to improve the quality of domestic wastewater in rural communities of developing countries like India.

Keywords

Constructed Wetlands, Domestic Wastewater, Field Scale, Subsurface Flow.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Vymazal, J., Horizontal sub-surface flow and hybrid constructed wetlands systems for wastewater treatment. Ecol. Eng., 2005, 25, 478–490.

  • Scholes, L. N. L., Shutes, R. B. E., Revitt, D. M., Purchase, D. and Forshaw, M., The removal of urban pollutants by constructed wetlands during wet weather. Water Sci Technol., 1999, 40, 33, 333–340.

  • Shelef, O., Gross, A. and Rachmilevitch, S., Role of plants in a constructed wetland: current and new perspectives. Water, 2013, 5, 405–419.

  • Stefanakis, A., Akratos, C. and Tsihrintzis, S., Vertical Flow Constructed Wetlands: Eco-engineering Systems for Wastewater and Sludge Treatment, Elsevier Science Publishing Co Inc, 2015, 1st edn.

  • Brix, H., Do macrophytes play a role in constructed treatment wetlands? Water Sci. Technol., 1997, 35, 11–17.

  • Cooke, J. G., Nutrient transformations in a natural wetland receiving sewage effluent and the implications for waste treatment. Water Sci. Technol., 1994, 29, 209–217.

  • Tanner, C. C., Clayton, J. S. and Upsdell, M. P., Effect of loading rate and planting on treatment of dairy farm wastewaters in constructed wetlands – I. Removal of oxygen demand, suspended solids and faecal coliforms. Water Resources, 1995, 29, 17–26.

  • Vymazal, J., Removal of nutrients in various types of constructed wetlands. Sci. Total Environ., 2007, 380, 48–65.

  • Klomjek, P. and Nitisoravut, S., Constructed treatment wetland: a study of eight plant species. Chemosphere, 2005, 58, 585–593.

  • United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), Manual for Constructed Wetlands Treatment of Municipal Wastewaters, EPA/625/R-99/010, Cincinnati, USEPA, 2000.

  • APHA, Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 4500-NH3 F, American Public Health Association (APHA), Washington, DC, 2005, 21st edition.

  • APHA, Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 4500-NO3 B, American Public Health Association, Washington, DC, 2005, 21st edition.

  • APHA, Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 4500-P D, American Public Health Association, Washington, DC, 2005, 21st edition.

  • APHA, Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 5220-C, American Public Health Association, Washington, DC, 2005, 21st edition.

  • APHA, Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 2540-D, American Public Health Association, Washington, DC, 2005, 21st edition.

  • Dalal, R. C., Sahrawat, K. L. and Myers, R. J. K., Inclusion of nitrate in the Kjeldahl nitrogen determination of soils and plant materials using sodium thiosulphate. Commun. Soil Sci. Plant Anal., 1984, 15, 1453–1461.

  • Olsen, S. R. and Sommers, L. E., Phosphorus. In Methods of Soil Analysis (eds Page, A. L., Miller, R. H. and Keeney, D. R.), American Society of Agronomy and Soil Science Society of America, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, 1982, pp. 403–430, part II, 2nd edn.

  • Tandon, H. L. S., Cescas, M. P. and Tyner, E. H., An acid free vanadate–molybdate reagent for the determination of total phosphorus in soils. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Proc., 1962, 32, 48–51.

  • Thomas, G. W., Exchangeable cations. In Methods of Soil Analysis (eds Page, A. L., Miller, R. H. and Keeney, D. R.), American Society of Agronomy and Soil Science Society of America, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, 1982, pp. 159–165, Part II, 2nd edition.

  • Sahrawat, K. L., Kumar G. R. and. Murthy, K. V. S., Sulfuric acid–selenium digestion for multi-element analysis in a single plant digest. Commun. Soil Sci. Plant Anal., 2002, 33, 3757–3765.

  • Matthew, S. W., Fowles, T. O. and Palmer, L. T., A cost-effective acid digestion method using closed polypropylene tubes for inductively coupled optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) analysis of plant essential elements. Anal. Methods, 2011, 3, 2854–2863.

  • United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), Office of wastewater management, Report to congress: clean water needs survey, 2000, 2004.

  • Merlin, G., Pajean, J. L. and Lissolo, T., Performances of constructed wetlands for municipal wastewater treatment in rural mountainous area. Hydrobiologia, 2002, 469, 87–98.

  • Thomas, P. R., Glover, P. and Kalaroopan, T., An evaluation of pollutant removal from secondary treated sewage effluent using a constructed wetland system. Water Sci. Technol., 1995, 32, 87–93.

  • Kaseva, M. E., Performance of a sub-surface flow constructed wetland in polishing pre-treated wastewater-a tropical case study. Water Res., 2004, 38, 681–687.

  • Lee, C. Y., Lee, C. C., Lee, F. Y., Tseng, S. K. and Liao, C. J., Performance of subsurface flow constructed wetland taking pretreated swine effluent under heavy loads. Bio-resource Technol., 2004, 92, 173–179.

  • Schulz, C., Gelbrecht, J. and Rennert, B., Treatment of rainbow trout farm effluents in constructed wetland with emergent plants and subsurface horizontal water flow. Aquaculture, 2003, 217, 207–221.

  • Gale, P. M., Reddy, K. R. and Graetz, D. A., Nitrogen removal from reclaimed water applied to constructed and natural wetland microcosms. Water Environ. Res., 1993, 65, 162–168.

  • Brix, H., Arias, C. A. and Del Bubba, M., Media selection for sustainable phosphorus removal in subsurface flow constructed wetlands. Water Sci. Technol., 2001, 44, 47–54.

  • Polomski, R. F., Taylor, M. D., Bielenberg, D. G., Bridges, W. C., Klaine, S. J. and Whitwell, T., Nitrogen and phosphorus remediation by three floating aquatic macrophytes in greenhouse-based laboratory-scale subsurface constructed wetlands. Water, Air, Soil Pollut., 2009, 197, 223–232.

  • Zingelwa, N. and Wooldridge, J., Tolerance of macrophytes and grasses to sodium and chemical oxygen demand in winery wastewater. South Afr. J. Enol. Vitic., 2009, 30, 117–123.

  • Costa, J. F., Martins, W. L. P., Martin, S. and Sperling, M., Role of vegetation (Typha latifolia) on nutrient removal in a horizontal subsurface-flow constructed wetland treating UASB reactor– trickling filter effluent. Water Sci. Technol., 2015, 71, 1004–1010; doi: 10.2166/wst.2015.055.

  • Kadlec, R. H., Comparison of free water and horizontal subsurface treatment wetlands. Ecol. Eng., 2009, 35, 159–174.

  • Metcalf and Eddy Inc., Wastewater Engineering: Treatment, Disposal and Reuse (eds Tchobanoglous, G. and Burton, F. L.), McGraw-Hill, New York, 1991, 3rd edn.

  • Reddy, K. R. and Patrick, W. H., Nitrogen transformations and loss in flooded soils and sediments. CRC Crit. Rev. Environ. Control., 1984, 13, 273–309.

  • Kadlec, R. H. and Knight, R. L., Treatment Wetlands, Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, USA, 1996.

  • Paul, E. A. and Clark, F. E., Soil Microbiology and Biochemistry, Academic Press, San Diego, California, 1996.

  • Dunne, E. J. and Reddy, K. R., Phosphorus biogeochemistry of wetlands in agricultural watersheds. In Nutrient Management in Agricultural Watersheds: A Wetlands Solution (eds Dunne, E. J., Reddy, K. R. and Carton, O. T.), Academic Publishers, Wageningen, 2005, pp. 105–119.


Abstract Views: 446

PDF Views: 155




  • Evaluating Wastewater Treatment Efficiency of Two Field Scale Subsurface Flow Constructed Wetlands

Abstract Views: 446  |  PDF Views: 155

Authors

A. S. Tilak
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru 502 324, India
S. P. Wani
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru 502 324, India
M. D. Patil
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru 502 324, India
A. Datta
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru 502 324, India

Abstract


Constructed wetlands (CWs) are human-made systems designed to treat a variety of industrial, domestic and agricultural wastewaters. We study here the efficiency of domestic wastewater treatment by two field scale subsurface flow CWs under different hydraulic loading rates (HLRs). Each CW had inlet and outlet chamber for wastewater collection with Pistia stratiotes (water lettuce), two treatment sections consisting of sand and gravel media and four plant species Typha latifolia (Broadleaf cattail) and Cymbopogon citratus (lemon grass - first CW) and (Pennisetum purpureum schum and Pennisetum americanum L (Hybrid napier) and Urochloa mutica (Paragrass - second CW). The wastewater source was from a residential urban colony. The HLRs for the first and second CW for a three-month period averaged 4.45 cm/day and 5.77 cm/day respectively. The CW was monitored for quality of wastewater inflows and outflows and nutrient accumulation in plants and sand media. Results showed that the chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), total nitrogen and total phosphate removals in the first and second CW over a three-month period averaged 42%, 74%, 39% and 41% and 34%, 82%, 14% and 35% respectively. Both the CWs showed similar rates of TSS removal irrespective of the type of wetland plant species. Over the three-month period, average COD, total nitrogen and the phosphate removals were greater in the first CW compared to the second CW. These results confirm the efficacy of field scale subsurface flow CWs to improve the quality of domestic wastewater in rural communities of developing countries like India.

Keywords


Constructed Wetlands, Domestic Wastewater, Field Scale, Subsurface Flow.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv110%2Fi9%2F1764-1772