Efficiency of subsurface flow constructed wetland with trickling filter

Effect of trickling filter on carbon and nitrogen removal in vertical flow treatment wetlands: A full-scale investigation

Vertical Flow Treatment Wetland (VF-TW) systems achieve high efficiencies in terms of carbon related parameters removals from domestic wastewaters. Nitrogen removal is also efficient but optimisations are still needed. This article reports and discusses experimental data collected from 24-h monitoring campaigns of 29 full-scale VF-TWs, having different configurations and operation time up to 13 years. All monitored systems gathered 1 or 2 stage(s) of unsaturated or partially saturated VF-TW. Additionally, some of those included an aerobic biological Tricking Filter (TF) prior to TW stage(s). Results firstly showed that the implementation of a TF improved TSS, COD and BOD₅ removal rates in the monitored systems. Regarding nitrogen removal, the association of TF with one stage of partially saturated vertical TW was found to achieve around 79% of nitrification in average and up to 92% in some cases. In the configurations where TF was associated to 2 successive stages of TW, almost all total nitrogen removal by nitrification/denitrification was achieved at the outlet of the first-stage TW. The contribution of the second-stage TW in denitrification was found very low due to limited availability of organic carbon to support heterotrophic denitrification. Specific solutions to enhance the contribution of the second stage in the denitrification process are discussed.

Presence of bacteria and bacteriophages in full-scale trickling filters and an aerated constructed wetland

Aerated Constructed Wetlands are a state-of-the-art design that provides a different physical and chemical environment (compared to traditional passive wetland designs) for the wastewater treatment processes and, thus, may have different pathogen removal characteristics. In order to establish the fate of bacterial and viral indicators, a field study was carried out at a Sewage Treatment Works (STW) in the UK (serving 20,000 pe). The STW consists of primary and secondary sedimentation tanks and trickling filters (TF) as the biological stage. A large (1,160 m²) pilot aerated Vertical Flow Constructed Wetland (AVFCW) was constructed at the STW as tertiary stage receiving ¼ of the total flow rate, i.e., 1250 m³/day. Effluent quality of the AVFCW complied with national and international standards for environmental discharge and reuse. For the first time, two sets of bacterial (Faecal coliforms, E.coli and intestinal enterococci) and viral indicators (Somatic coliphages, F-RNA specific bacteriophages and human-specific B. fragilis GB124 phages) were simultaneously investigated in an AVFCW and TF. High elimination rates were detected (up to 3.7 and 2.2 log reduction for bacteria indicators and phages, respectively) and strong correlations between the two sets were found. The superior efficiency of the aerated Constructed Wetlands in microbiological contamination removal compared to passive wetland systems was established for the first time, which may have implications for process selection for wastewater reuse. This field study therefore provides new evidence on the fate of bacteriophages and a first indication of their potential use for performance evaluation in TF and aerated Constructed Wetlands. It also demonstrates that the combination of TF with aerated constructed wetlands could be a novel and effective treatment scheme for new STW or for the upgrade of existing STW.

Interpreting hydrodynamic behaviour by the model of stirred tanks in series with exchanged zones: preliminary study in lab-scale trickling filters

In trickling filters for wastewater treatment, hydrodynamic behaviour is affected by the growth of biofilm on the porous medium. Therefore, modelling hydrodynamic behaviour is necessary and efficient to predict the biodegradation of pollutants. In this study, laboratory-scale trickling filters were filled with two different porous media (glass beads and plastic rings) and were fed by a synthetic substrate in batch mode. Total organic carbon (TOC) of the effluent was measured and retention time distribution (RTD) was determined by injecting NaCl. Results showed that medium had no significant effect on TOC removal rate (around 80% and 60% respectively for batch time of seven and two days). However, regarding the hydrodynamic behaviour, the effective volume ratio and hydraulic efficiency in the glass beads bed increased remarkably from 28% and 18% to 80% and 70%, respectively, with the reduction of dispersion coefficient (from 4.55 to 1.53). Moreover, the short batch time accelerated this change. Conversely, no variation of hydrodynamic behaviour in plastic rings bed was evident. Along with the feeding of synthetic substrate, biofilm concentration ranged from 1.5 to 10.1 g/L in the glass beads reactor and it achieved around 2.8 g/L in the plastic rings reactor. Hydrodynamic modelling indicated that the model of stirred tanks in series with exchanged zones fitted the experimental results well. These gave values of mobile and immobile volumes of 51 mL and 17 mL, respectively, in the glass beads filter and 25 mL and 15 mL, respectively, in the plastic rings filter.

Comparison of vertical-flow constructed wetlands with and without supplementary aeration treating decentralized domestic wastewater

Constructed wetlands (CWs) are efficient in reducing excessive contamination from wastewaters. However, oxygen inside CW beds is frequently low especially when substrate clogging problems appear after long-term operation, and this may become a limited factor for the treatment of wastewaters. Aimed at dealing with the issue of a low oxygen content in CW systems, two laboratory-scale vertical-flow constructed wetlands (VFCWs) with and without an aeration device (called VFCW-a and VFCW-c, respectively) were designed in this study to test the contribution of supplementary aeration to the treatment of decentralized domestic wastewater. Results showed that under the intermittent operation of about 45 days, two VFCW units were successfully started up by using activated sludge as seed sludge. Compared to VFCW-c, VFCW-a had a better resistance ability to organic shock loads and its removal function could be effectively recovered within a short period after the introduction of organic shock loads. Under intermittent operation with a 12 h idling time, the ideal hydraulic retention time (HRT) of VFCW-a was 42 h, about 6 h shorter than that of VFCW-c. Likewise, under intermittent operation with 42 h HRT, the ideal idling time of VFCW-a was 12 h, still about 6 h shorter than that of VFCW-c. Under intermittent operation with HRT-42 h and an idling time of 12 h, SS, COD, TN and TP removal efficiencies in VFCW-a could reach 81.2%, 85%, 89.9% and 77.9%, respectively. The VFCW unit with supplementary aeration is an efficient innovation for the treatment of decentralized domestic wastewater.