Evaluating Domestic Wastewater Treatment Efficiency of Field Scale Hybrid Flow Constructed Wetland in Series

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

Civil Engineering Department, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur and 177005, India

Abstract

Constructed wetlands (CWs) are man-made systems designed to treat a range of residential, commercial, and industrial wastewaters. The objective of the study was to evaluate the efficiency of wastewater treatment systems using constructed wetlands. The effectiveness of removing chemical and physical pollutants was also evaluated. The setup consisted of a hybrid flow system composed of upflow constructed wetland and a horizontal flow constructed wetland connected in series that is used for primary treatment of the influent of domestic wastewater. Two systems were analyzed: one cultivated with the ornamental species Canna Indica, and one cultivated with the cattail Cymbopogon flexuosus. It consisted of two treatment sections consisting of two plant species Cymbopogon citratus (lemon grass – first CW) and Canna xalapensis Horan (Canna Indica – second CW). The water quality parameters i.e., BOD, COD, TSS were analyzed according to APHA (American Public Health Association) by daily sampling. The CW was monitored for the quality of wastewater inflows and outflows and nutrient accumulation in plants. Results showed that the maximum COD removal for Lemon Grass and Canna Indica beds were 75% and 70% respectively at 200mg/L COD loading in the CW setup over a six-month period respectively. The maximum BOD removal found in Lemon Grass and Canna Indica beds were 73% and 64% respectively at a feed concentration of 200mg/L COD. Both the CWs together as one unit showed similar rates of TSS removal irrespective of the type of wetland plant species and were more efficient in treating wastewater.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

Abou-Elela, S. I., Golinielli, G., Abou-Taleb, E. M., & Hellal, M. S. (2013). Municipal wastewater treatment in horizontal and vertical flows constructed wetlands. Ecological engineering, 61, 460-468.
Abou-Elela, S. I., & Hellal, M. S. (2012). Municipal wastewater treatment using vertical flow constructed wetlands planted with Canna, Phragmites and Cyprus. Ecological engineering, 47, 209-213.
Achak, M., Boumya, W., Elamraoui, S., Asdiou, N., Taoufik, N., Barka, N., & Lamy, E. (2023). Performance of olive mill wastewater treatment using hybrid system combining sand filtration and vertical flow constructed wetlands. Journal of Water Process Engineering, 53, 103737.
Chen, T. Y., Kao, C. M., Yeh, T. Y., Chien, H. Y., & Chao, A. C. (2006). Application of a constructed wetland for industrial wastewater treatment: A pilot-scale study. Chemosphere, 64(3), 497-502.
Díaz, F. J., Anthony, T. O., & Dahlgren, R. A. (2012). Agricultural pollutant removal by constructed wetlands: Implications for water management and design. Agricultural Water Management, 104, 171-183.
Gholipour, A., Zahabi, H., & Stefanakis, A. I. (2020). A novel pilot and full-scale constructed wetland study for glass industry wastewater treatment. Chemosphere, 247, 125966.
Haydar, S., Anis, M., & Afaq, M. (2020). Performance evaluation of hybrid constructed wetlands for the treatment of municipal wastewater in developing countries. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 28(6), 1717-1724.
Kulshreshtha, N. M., Verma, V., Soti, A., Brighu, U., & Gupta, A. B. (2022). Exploring the contribution of plant species in the performance of constructed wetlands for domestic wastewater treatment. Bioresource Technology Reports, 18, 101038.
Kumar, S., & Dutta, V. (2019). Constructed wetland microcosms as sustainable technology for domestic wastewater treatment: an overview. Environmental science and pollution research, 26(12), 11662-11673.
Lu, S., Zhang, X., Wang, J., & Pei, L. (2016). Impacts of different media on constructed wetlands for rural household sewage treatment. Journal of Cleaner Production, 127, 325-330.
Mustafa, A. (2013). Constructed wetland for wastewater treatment and reuse: a case study of developing country. International Journal of Environmental Science and Development, 4(1), 20.
Ramprasad, C., & Philip, L. (2018). Greywater treatment using horizontal, vertical and hybrid flow constructed wetlands. Current Science, 155-165.
Swarnakar, A. K., Bajpai, S., & Ahmad, I. (2022, June). Various Types of Constructed Wetland for Wastewater Treatment-A Review. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 1032, No. 1, p. 012026). IOP Publishing.
Tilak, A. S., Wani, S. P., Patil, M. D., & Datta, A. (2016). Evaluating wastewater treatment efficiency of two field scale subsurface flow constructed wetlands. Current Science, 1764-1772.
Vishwakarma, S., Dharmendra, D., & Singh, D. (2023). Seasonal Variation in Physico-chemical Characteristics of Domestic Wastewater in Himachal Pradesh: a Case Study. Journal of Mining and Environment, 14(3), 771-787.
Wu, H., Gao, X., Wu, M., Zhu, Y., Xiong, R., & Ye, S. (2020). The efficiency and risk to groundwater of constructed wetland system for domestic sewage treatment-A case study in Xiantao, China. Journal of Cleaner Production, 277, 123384.
Wu, H., Zhang, J., Ngo, H. H., Guo, W., Hu, Z., Liang, S., ... & Liu, H. (2015). A review on the sustainability of constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment: design and operation. Bioresource technology, 175, 594-601.
Ye, F., & Li, Y. (2009). Enhancement of nitrogen removal in towery hybrid constructed wetland to treat domestic wastewater for small rural communities. Ecological Engineering, 35(7), 1043-1050.
Zhao, X., Guo, M., Chen, J., Zhuang, Z., Zhang, T., Wang, X., ... & Bai, S. (2022). Successional dynamics of microbial communities in response to concentration perturbation in constructed wetland system. Bioresource Technology, 361, 127733.
Pollution
Volume 10, Issue 1
January 2024
Pages 392-403

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics