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Short communication
A R T I C L E I N F O
A B S T R A C T
Article history:
Received 1 August 2014
Received in revised form 26 November 2014
Accepted 1 December 2014
Available online xxx
Constructed wetlands (CWs) are wastewater treatment systems suitable for reducing a contaminant load
in wastewater, economically. In this study, vegetated and unplanted pilot gravel lters, for tertiary
treatment of efuent from a conventional wastewater treatment plant (trickling lter) in Southern Italy
(Sicily), are compared with pollutant removal efciencies. Two beds are unplanted (control systems)
whereas eight beds are planted with four different macrophyte species: Vetiveria zizanoides,Miscanthus x
giganteus, Arundo donax and Phragmites australis. The treatment performance of each wetland has been
evaluated using the load removal efciency (LRE) in order to take into account the ET effect. The
comparison between wetland treatment removal of vegetated H-SSF CWs and unplanted lters showed
that systems with plants have achieved a higher treatment efciency. ET, measured in vegetated beds,
appeared different from ET of control units, underlining the strong effect of vegetation.
2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Constructed wetland
Vetiveria zizanoides
Miscanthus x giganteus
Arundo donax
Phragmites australis
Wastewater treatment
1. Introduction
The typical warm climate of Mediterranean areas, all
year-round is suitable for using CW as wastewater treatment,
since it is conducive to the plant growth and microbiological
activity, which have a positive effect on treatment efciency
(Bojcevska and Tonderski, 2007; Kaseva, 2004; Barbagallo et al.,
2012). However, rainfall and evapotranspiration (ET) may inuence
pollutant removal efciency in subsurface ow CWs. Furthermore,
in regions suffering from water shortage, where there is a growing
interest in the use of reclaimed efuent for agricultural purposes, a
loss of signicant amount of water via ET is undesirable because of
water quantity reduction and non biodegradable pollutant
concentration increase in the outow (Headley et al., 2012;
El Hamouri et al., 2007; Green et al., 2006). In this paper is analysed
the load removal efciency for four emergent plant species
(Vetiveria zizanoides, Miscanthus x giganteus, Arundo donax and
Phragmites australis) taking into account the evapotranspiration
effect on removal processes with regards to weather conditions
and vegetation types. While Phragmites, Arundo, and Vetivera are
usually used in constructed wetland systems, M. x giganteus, a
perennial herbaceous plant, has not commonly applied. This plant
156
For each bed, the control panel records the inuent ow rate, the
efuent discharged volume (calculated on the basis of the number
of pump activations) and regulates the open/closing time of the
electromechanical valves, the latter installed in the inlet pipe of
each bed.
ET
V in
V out
P
A
A
(1)
where Vin (m3 d1) is the mean volume of the inuent daily fed in
the CW pilot plant, A is surface area of CW bed (4.5 m2), P is the net
precipitation (mm d1) and Vout (m3 d1) is the mean daily volume
efuent collected in the constructed wetland beds planted with the
same macrophyte. The inlet ow rate (Vin) to the H-SSF beds was
measured and recorded by electronic ow meter while the outow
rate (Vout) was calculated on the number of pump activations per
Table 1
Mean inuent (SD) and efuent (SD) pollutant concentration, mean mass loadings (SD) at the inlet and outlet of all the CW beds and mean load removal efciency (SD).
SST
COD
NH4
TN
E. colia
PO4
Inuent
(mg/L)
(g/m2 d)
94
54
(69)
(34)
83
40
(35)
(18)
9.7
4.6
(4.2)
(2.0)
25.5
11.9
(8.3)
(3.6)
3.9
1.9
(1.9)
(0.4)
5.6
(0.4)
Vetiveria zizanoides
Out (mg/L)
Out (g/m2 d)
LRE (%)
7
3
86
(4)
(2)
(9)
26
12
62
(12)
(5)
(14)
4.1
1.9
51
(1.7)
(0.7)
(5.6)
10.2
4.7
59
(4.4)
(2.0)
(6.1)
3.0
1.4
25
(0.9)
(0.4)
(2.2)
2.9
(0.5)
2.7
(0.5)
Out (mg/L)
Out (g/m2 d)
LRE (%)
7
3
86
(3)
(1)
(11)
27
12
61
(11)
(5)
(12)
4.1
1.9
52
(2.2)
(1.0)
(6.3)
9.9
4.6
57
(3.9)
(1.6)
(6.5)
3.3
1.5
20
(1.2)
(0.6)
(2.3)
2.9
(0.6)
2.8
(0.6)
Out (mg/L)
Out (g/m2 d)
LRE (%)
6
3
89
(3)
(1)
(10)
28
13
59
(15)
(6)
(13)
3.8
1.8
53
(1.1)
(0.4)
(5.2)
9.9
4.6
56
(4.1)
(1.8)
(6.0)
2.9
1.4
28
(1.2)
(0.6)
(2.4)
2.8
(0.4)
2.8
(0.4)
Out (mg/L)
Out (g/m2 d)
LRE (%)
7
3
88
(4)
(1)
(8)
25
11
63
(13)
(6)
(10)
3.9
1.8
57
(2.0)
(0.8)
(4.5)
9.5
4.3
61
(4.4)
(1.9)
(6.0)
3.0
1.4
29
(1.2)
(0.5)
(2.1)
2.5
(0.6)
3.1
(0.6)
Out (mg/L)
Out (g/m2 d)
LRE (%)
10
4
83
(4)
(2)
(12)
37
17
53
(17)
(7)
(15)
5.9
2.7
43
(2.8)
(1.3)
(6.5)
14.5
6.7
43
(4.7)
(2.0)
(6.3)
3.0
1.4
19
(0.9)
(0.5)
(2.5)
3.5
(0.7)
2.2
(0.7)
Myscanthus x giganteus
Arundo donax
Phragmites australis
Fig. 2. Variation of load removal efciency (LRE) for: (a) TSS, (b) COD and (c) NH4. Each point represents the mean value of 23 samplings per month.
157
158
C in V in C out V out
100
C in V in
(2)
Fig. 3. Load removal efciency (LRE) versus plant height for NH4. Each point represents the mean value of 23 samplings per month.
159
160
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