Municipal Wastewater Treatment in Subsurface Vertical Flow Constructed Wetlands Using Conventional Media in Setup Phase

Abstract

Experimental investigation on municipal wastewater treatment through 6 pilot scale Subsurface Vertical Flow Constructed Wetlands (SSVF CWs) was studied utilizing two conventional materials as substrate used as 12 mm size gravel overlain by 2 mm size uniformly graded coarse sandat SWINGS site of Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. Among 6 CW beds first bed was kept unplanted and rest of the 5 beds were planted with Phragmites Karka, Canna Indica, Iris, Sagittaria and Phragmites Australis for conducting comparative study among macrophytes species used in context of contaminants removal. The primary emphasis of this study was the initial few months of the CWs running in setup phase. This phase encompasses improving phases in development of substrate permeability, microbial growth on substrate and rhizosphere, until the steady state for operation was achieved. The aims of this research paper are to assess duration requirement in setup phase for SSVF CWs through variations in removal efficiencies, and also to analyse the efficacy of conventional materials as substrate in the treatment of biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). The findings indicated that following a period of 174 days of running, the CWs had achieved a state of consistent permeability and commenced a stable removal process. The removal efficiencies for BOD and COD are found as Unplanted < Iris < Canna Indica < Sagittaria < Phragmites Karka < Phragmites Australis.