Bioresource Technology 101 (2010) 833–835

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Bioresource Technology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biortech

Short Communication

Biomass production of papyrus (Cyperus papyrus) in constructed wetland

treating low-strength domestic wastewater
Thaneeya Perbangkhem a,1, Chongchin Polprasert b,*
a
School of Environmental Engineering, Institute of Engineering, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima 30000, Thailand
b
Department of Sanitary Engineering, Faculty of Public Health Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, the pilot-scale constructed wetlands were fed with low-strength domestic wastewater to
Received 31 March 2009 investigate the energy-capturing efficiency and plant productivity. Papyrus was a selected emergent
Received in revised form 14 August 2009 macrophyte planted in the systems. The wastewater was intermittently fed to the systems, correspond-
Accepted 18 August 2009
ing to the organic loading rates of 10, 16, 31, and 63 kg BOD/ha-d.
Available online 15 September 2009
With abundant sunshine in the tropical-climate area, papyrus converted solar radiation to biomass of
about 2200–3100 g dry weight/m2 from the two-month period of the experiments. Furthermore, the
Keywords:
energy contents of papyrus are 16.2, 17.2, and 16.8 MJ/kg for culms, umbels, and total above-ground
Energy-capturing efficiency
Papyrus
parts, respectively. From the plant productivity and the energy contents of papyrus obtained from this
Constructed wetland study, the energy capturing efficiencies can be estimated to be in the range of 4.4–6.0%, which are rela-
Biomass productivity tively high, compared with those of other plants.
Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Constructed wetland (CW) is a system engineered for treating
wastewaters by using plants, soil and microorganisms, to improve
the water quality and is an effective treatment system alternative
where suitable land is available at low cost (Neralla et al., 2000;
Vymazal, 2005). Several advantages can also be obtained from
the use of CW for wastewater treatments; for examples, removal
of both organic matter, use minimal energy input, etc. (Kiwango
and Wolanski, 2008). The aquatic macrophyte grown in the CW
system is one of the main components used for wastewater treat-
ment. The plant itself also provides the surface areas for bacterial
growth, uptakes the nutrients and add oxygen to the water (Li
et al., 2008). In addition to the water quality improvement, plant
productivity is one of the CW added values because the biomass
obtained can be further utilized as food, medicine, paper, biofuel,
etc. (Polprasert, 2007).
Plant growth depends on many factors but the most important
one is sunlight because the energy for growth requirement derives
from sunlight through photosynthesis, in general, 1–5% of solar en-
ergy falling on a plant is converted to organic matter (Chrispeels
and Sadava, 2003). The actual yield of energy in plant depends
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +66 23548540.
E-mail addresses: annita_p2004@hotmail.com (T. Perbangkhem), phcpp@mahi-
dol.ac.th (C. Polprasert).
1
Tel.: +66 17339150.
on the product of solar input and efficiency with which the solar
energy is transformed into the harvested product.
Because in Thailand, there are many small communities located
in the tropical area with abundant sunshine, it is appropriate from
the solar energy utilization to grow plants for use of both biomass
production and waste recovery and recycling. Aquatic plant that
has high potential of converting solar energy into the plant produc-
tivity should be selected for plantation in CW. Papyrus is one of the
most interesting one because it can grow well in the subtropical
and tropical climate and is among the most productive plants of
wetlands (Boar et al., 1999; Kansiime et al., 2005; Mnaya et al.,
2007). Therefore, this study was carried out with the objectives:
(1) to assess the plant productivity of papyrus and (2) to estimate
the energy capturing efficiencies in CW fed with low-strength
domestic wastewater.
2. Methods
Two sets of the experimental pilot-scale CW, each with the
dimensions of 1 m  3 m  1.2 m (width  length  depth), were
operated to treat domestic sewage generated from dormitories
and office buildings in the Suranaree University of Technology
(SUT) campus. The CW units were intermittently fed with primary
sewage pumped directly from the effluent weir of the primary sed-
imentation tank, resulting in the organic loading rates of 10, 16, 31,
and 63 kg BOD/ha-d for Run No. 1, Run No. 2, Run No. 3, and Run
No. 4, respectively. The experiments were carried out between

0960-8524/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2009.08.062
834 T. Perbangkhem, C. Polprasert / Bioresource Technology 101 (2010) 833–835

January 2005 and March 2006 with the 2-month period for each
experimental run.
Papyrus was selected to plant in the CW. Before cultivating the
papyrus, the CW beds were prepared with gravel at the bottom and
sandy loam at the top. Outlet valve of the CW’s tank was positioned
to maintain the water level of 35 cm above the bed, resulting in the
free water surface volume of 1.05 m3. At the beginning, they were
cut down to 0.60 m in height above ground, signaling the first day
of the experiment. Afterwards, effluent sampling and analyses
were carried out every drainage days to determine for biochemical
oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total sus-
pended solid (TSS), ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N), and orthophos-
phate phosphorus (o-PO3 4 ) (Franson et al., 1998). Every 10 days,
a stem of plant was randomly cut so as to determine plant height
and biomass. Measurements of standing biomass and above-
ground productivity were made in quadrant of 0.5 m  0.5 m after
the end of each experimental run. Finally, energy contents of papy-
rus were determined, using bomb calorimeter.
3. Results and discussion
The average concentrations of the wastewater fed to all the CW
units are shown in Table 1; in comparison with those of Thailand’s
municipal sewage (Kanabkaew and Puetpaiboon, 2004). Because
the SUT buildings were equipped with septic tanks as a wastewater
pre-treatment unit, prior to being discharged into the sewer, or-
ganic solids would be partly removed, resulting in lower concen-
trations of BOD and SS.
The net plant biomass and productivity including the productiv-
ity of each part of papyrus (culm and umbel) are summarized in
Table 2. This plant growth has a tendency to be in the transitional
phase of sigmoid curve for normal population growth rate so that
the papyrus growth rate was derived to Eq. (1). Then the Thomas
The above-ground biomass of the papyrus in this study was rel-
atively lower to previous studies because of the shorter planting
duration and low-strength wastewater (Kansiime et al., 2007;
Mnaya et al., 2007). However, their differences in various sites
have been attributed to prevailing climatic conditions. From
Fig. 1, the optimum period for harvesting can be found to be 41–
50 days. Plant cutting before the optimum period previously stated
will need more unnecessary manpower to do the work, thereby
increasing the cost of treatment wetland operation. At the opti-
mum point, the growth rate of the plant is lowest. Subsequently,
further allowance for plant growth is useless and, in the commer-
cial sense, the opportunity for exploitation of the value-added
material is lost. Therefore, determination of the optimum period
of plant harvest would be one of the very significant parameters
in the design and operation of CW for wastewater treatment so
that associated workforces and tools can be properly provided.
The energy capturing efficiencies of papyrus are in the range of
4.52–6.02% for CW as shown in Fig. 2. Umbels represented the
higher energy-capturing efficiency parts than culms because they
serve also as main photosynthetic surface. Papyrus has higher
range of energy-capturing efficiency (4.41–6.02%). The results
shows that this plant likes to grow in full sun so that it can capture
more energy from the sun and transform into the plant production
and it has a high photosynthetic and productive potential due to
the presence of C4 photosynthesis. Moreover, the heating values
of papyrus in this study fall within a wide range of biomass mate-
rials such as field crop residues, food and fiber processing wastes,
forest residues and energy crops (Chanthunyagarn et al., 2004, Gar-
cía et al., 2008; Rosillo-Calle et al., 2008). Accordingly, papyrus is
appropriate to use as biomass fuels which is the most suitable
140
decreasing grow th rate(g /m -d)

120
method was used to determine the ultimate plant biomass (mu)
2

Run 1
and rate constant (k) (Lee and Lin, 2000): 100 Run 2
Run 3
80
mt ¼ mu ð1  ekt Þ ð1Þ Run 4
60
where mt is the biomass at time (g dry weight/m2), mu is the ulti-
40
mate biomass (g dry weight/m2), k is the rate constant (1/d) and t
is the time (d). 20

0
Table 1
0
0

0
10

-6
-2

-3

-4

-5
1-

11

21

31

41

51

The influent concentrations of the constructed wetlands and typical domestic

wastewater in Thailand. time period (d)
Parameter Influent concentrations (mg/L)
Fig. 1. The decreasing growth rates of papyrus in CW.
This study Typical domestic wastewater in Thailand
COD 65.4–92.4 192–700
BOD 18.4–22.1 110–400
7
NH3 10.7–21.5 12–51
o-PO3 3.03–5.75 2.8–10.5
energy capturing effieciencies (%)

4 6
SS 10.9–16.4 100–350
5
culm
4
Table 2
umbel
Biomass and primary productivity of papyrus in each constructed wetland units. 3 total
Run Plant biomass Plant productivity Culm Umbel 2
(g dry (g dry productivity productivity
weight/m2) weight/m2 d) (g dry (g dry 1
weight/m2 d) weight/m2 d)
0
1 2341 39.02 15.99 23.03
2 2359 39.32 14.28 25.04 1 2 3 4
Run no.
3 2538 42.30 15.87 26.43
4 3115 51.91 20.26 31.65
Fig. 2. Energy capturing efficiencies of papyrus in each CW.
 T. Perbangkhem, C. Polprasert / Bioresource Technology 101 (2010) 833–835
and available renewable energy resource. Furthermore, their har-
vest will help to re-grow the new culms density rapidly and can
probably reach original productivity within nine months to a year
in the natural condition. If they are planted in the wastewater
treatment unit, they will grow and reach to the ultimate growth
rate more rapidly than those in the nature; so they need to be har-
vested frequently for more productivity. This result obviously
points to the possibility of the plant to be used, more than just
treating wastewater, as an alternative energy source and other va-
lue-added matter for further utilization of fibrous materials; such
as pulp in paper industry and weaving materials for handicraft. Fi-
nally, in order to maintain high yields and good quality papyrus for
continuous harvesting, suitable management programs must be
planed for successful operation to obtain the optimum period for
harvesting so as to achieve sustainable yields.
4. Conclusion
Operation of the pilot-scale free water surface wetland in this
study indicates the feasible use of papyrus as a potential plant used
to treat domestic wastewater. More than just treating the waste-
water, the plant harvest gives the value-added materials, which
could reduce or even offset the treatment costs. The papyrus gave
the plant biomass of about 2590 g dry weight/m2 with the growth
rate constant of 0.040 (d1) and its energy-capturing efficiency of
about 4.3%. The optimum period for plant harvesting was found
to be about 41–50 days. Appropriate plant cutting would help
maintain a high growth rate all the time.
Acknowledgements
The authors greatly appreciate The Thailand Research Fund for
the financial support of this research given to Thaneeya Perbangk-
hem through The Royal Golden Jubilee Ph.D. Scholarship Program.
835
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