APPLICABILITY OF

CONSTRUCTED WELTAND FOR

WASTEWATER TREATMENT

PROJECT NO
GROUP MEMBERS
SPERVISED BY

: C/11/59
: HASAN, H.M. (E/11/146),
RAJAPAKSHE,R.M.S.T.(E/11/317)
: MRS.G.M.P.R. WEERAKOON

WHAT IS A CONSTRUCTED WETLAND

A constructed
wetland is an
artificial
wetland
created for the
purpose of
treating
anthropogenic
discharge such
as municipal or
industrial
wastewater,
storm water
runoff

APPILICABILITY
Secondary or tertiary treatment process for wastewater
cost-effective, simple, economical, efficient and longterm, wastewater treatment technologies
Constructed wetlands are natural systems and do not
require electrical energy (unless for pumps) or chemicals
Best suited for warm climates, but can be designed to
tolerate freezing periods
CWs can be combined with many other techniques such
as aquaculture, irrigation and several pre-treatment
options.

 Water, media, microbes and vegetation are the four main components
used for create a CW.
Contaminants are removed mainly by physical mechanisms, such as
filtration or sedimentation, and biochemical interactions, such as
microbial degradation.
Wetland vegetation plays an important role in treatment of wastewater
in a constructed wetland.
Oxygenation by roots has been shown to have a significant impact on
important mechanisms of wastewater treatment in CWs.
The fluctuation of water level in CWs may cause the variation of ROR.
And also hence efficiency of the treatment system will vary .

TYPES OF A CONTRUCTED WETLAND

Constructed wetlands

Surface flow wetlands

Sub surface flow wetlands

(SFW)

(SSFW)

Vertical flow system

Horizontal flow system

POLLUTANT REMOVAL PROCESSORS

Pollutants removed

processes

Organic materials (measured as

BOD)(Dissolved)

Biodegradation

Suspended solids

Filtration and settling at Inlet

Nitrogen

Plants uptake and volatilization

Sedimentation
Microbial uptake

Phosphorous

Sedimentation
Filtration
Absorption
Pant and microbial uptake

Pathogens

Natural die-off
Sedimentation
Filtration

Heavy metals

Sedimentation
Absorption
Plant uptake

LITERATURE REVIEW
Wastewater treatment is much needed in nowadays due to the
lack of good quality fresh water resources (Llorens et al., 2011)
Major pollutant sources are domestic sewage, municipal and
industrial wastewaters, agricultural runoff, urban drainage and
landfill leachate.
Compare to ww treatment systems the Constructed Wetlands
(CWs) are more significant as a secondary or tirtiary treatment
for domestic wastewater (Headley et al., 2012) as a low
care/low maintenance treatment system CWs are the cheaper
than all other treatment systems.
Constructed wetlands are manmade wetlands that utilize
natural processes involving wetland soil, vegetation, and
microbial community associated to assist in treating
wastewater (Kadlec and Knight, 1996)

Continue

Low care/Low maintenance plants cattails (Typha) are the plants

most often associated with wetlands around the world. The larger,
native varieties. They do work well and seem to have a positive
impact on treatment. They take work to control and in later years
may need to be removed. (Sim, C.H. 2003)

The plant type (Root Oxygen release) and water level are the main
parameters that considered at the removal efficiency of
Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD 5), Chemical oxygen demand
(COD), Fecal coliform (FC), Total Coliform (TC) CWs.

Continue

The aerobic processes require higher oxygen concentration (Garcia

et al., 2005; Wiessner et al., 2005) in the CW
Oxygen release from wetland plants in CWs varied in different
growing stages of plant life cycle and the capacity of oxygen
release of wetland plants could be influenced by plant species. (
Jian Zhang & Haiming Wu & Zhen Hu &Shuang Liang & Jinlin Fan
2014)
Dissolved oxygen in wastewater can make it more aerobic and
improve the pollutant removal activity. Several previous studies
have revealed that efficiency of wetlands could be enhanced by
fluctuation in water level (Stein et al., 2003; Tanner et al., 1999)
where increasing dissolving of oxygen was noted during the waterlevel variation.

OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the effect of water level fluctuation on efficiency of the

horizontal sub-surface flow CW.

To estimate the effect of water level fluctuation on Oxygen release

rate of Typha angustifolia (Narrow leaf Cattail) plant.

SCOPE
Conduct a laboratory experiment to evaluate the
effect of water level fluctuation on pollutant removal
efficiency in Constructed Wetland by using synthetic
wastewater.

METHODOLOGY
1.Wetland set-up
Horizontal Sub-surface flow wetlands will be used.
2 inch metal

60 cm

140 cm
3/4 inch metal

50 cm

Impermeable layer

2.Macrophytes

Young Typha angustifolia plants are collected from

panideniya area.
8 plants are planted in a wetland.
To avoid the shock of sudden feeding of synthetic
wastewater, the wastewater application is started after
all wetlands have been fed with tap water for one week.
Assume the average light intensity and
evapotranspiration are not significantly differs during
the study period.
Except the continuous inflow, no watering is provided
to the wetlands.
The extent of the experimental period was 6 months
from April to September 2016, because the typical
growing season of Typha is normally during the April to
September period.

3.Wetland arrangement
6 wetlands are prepared, 3 with a static water level (namely
S1,S2,S3), 3 with fluctuating water level (namely F1,F2,F3).
Each wetland will be fed with 28 ml/min wastewater flow rate.
only 4 wetlands will be planted.
S3 and F3 are control wetlands( No plants).

S1

F1

S2

F2

S3

F3

4. Flow manipulation
For the calculations we took porosity as 0.4 from previous
year project.
Assuming HRT for static condition is 3.5days;
continuous flow of wastewater is supplied to
each wetland is 28 ml/min
For the fluctuating flow wetlands, the height of the survival
pipe is changed from 50 cm to 40cm.
There for the HRT changes from 3.5 days to 2.8 days.
Multichannel peristaltic pump is used to supply water to the 6
wetlands

50 cm static water level

50 cm

50 cm
40
cm water
water level
level for
for 3.5
3.5 days
days

40 cm

5. Wastewater
Wastewater is prepared synthetically in laboratory.
Compounds
compound

Concentration (mg/l)

Glucose/sugar

150

Sodium acetate

300

Peptone

15

NH4Cl

140

KH2PO4

35

MgSO4.7H2O

30

FeSO4.7H2O

sludge

Expected Quality of wastewater

Water quality index

Concentration (mg/l)

BOD5

200

COD

400

6. Water quality monitoring

BOD5

COD

these quality parameters will be

TSS

FC

TC

pH

Temperature

measured every 2 weeks.

DO

2.5 weeks interval

Removal efficiency can be calculated using following equation;

efficiency = Ci Co 100%
Ci
where Ci = the concentration of nutrient supplied to wetland (mg/l
Co = the concentration of nutrient in the effluents from the
wetland (mg/l).

7. Plant growth monitoring

Shoot height

Shoot Density

below
Number of leaves

The relative growth rate on a plant

dry biomass basis will be calculated by
equation;

growth rate = log (Wf - Wi)

t
where Wi = the total dry biomass at the beginning of the
experiment (g),
Wf = the total dry biomass at the end of th
experiment,
and t = the length of the experiment

8. Root Oxygen Release (ROR)

The rate of O2 release through thypa roots is estimated
colorimetrically with Ti3+ - citrate solution at 4 weeks (Kludze et al.
1993)
During the destructive sampling of plants, one undamaged sample
plant from the CW will be used to quantify the ROR.

S2
Ti 3+ citrate

F2
Ti 3+citrate

BUDGET
TEST

Item

Quantity

Rate

Amount(Rs)

BOD5

MnSO4

100g

100g/600.00

600.00

NaOH

125g

500g/700.00

175.00

NaI

50g

100g/1500.00

750.00

Na2S2O35H2O

50g

500g/2500.00

250.00

H2SO4 (98%)

250ml

500ml/1500.00

750.00

Nestler Region

50ml

500ml/8000.00

800.00

Methyl Alcohol

25ml

50ml/4000.00

2000.00

Minaral stabilizer

25ml

50ml/3000.00

1500.00

NO3-N

powder pillow

35

190.00 per one

6650.00

TSS

Filter paper

35

50.00per one

1750.00

TN

Filter

35

150.00 per one

5250.00

NH4-N

paper(0.45m)
Argan

0.00

Metal

1.26 m3

4000

5040.00

Cement

1.5kg

18

27.00

Water tank

1/2 tank

12000

6000.00

Plastic mesh for

27 pots

50

1350.00

Cleaning

500

500.00

Plastering

1500

1500.00

20

540.00

planting

Typha plants

27
Total without pump

Peristaltic pump

1 pump
Total

32907.00
140000

140000.00
172907.00

TIME SCHEDULE
Semester
Week

Preparation of
wetland setup
Feeding
wastewater

Sampling
Test samples

Preliminary data
analysis
Data analysis
Interpret data
Finalize the
report

Semester 7
1
2

1
3

1
4

1
5

1
6

17

1
0

11

1
2

1
3

1
4

1
5

THANK YOU