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Effect of first-stage aeration on treatment of domestic sewage in different hybrid constructed wetlands

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Abstract

Two sets of hybrid constructed wetlands (HCWs) with the first-stage aeration were used to treat actual domestic sewage in this paper, where the effects of three important factors of aeration mode, hydraulic loading rates (HLR), and aeration volume on the removal of pollutants in both HCWs were studied in contrasts. In addition, the pollutant removal efficiency, the contribution of plants, and the characteristics of biofilm in both HCWs were explored. The results of 250-day experiment showed that the TN removal capacity of HCW combining vertical flow CW with horizontal flow CW (VF-HF) was better than HCW’s converse combination (HF-VF) in treatingsewage, while the removal efficiency of COD and NH4+-N were similar, and the concentrations of TN and COD in the effluent of VF-HF could successfully meet the National discharge requirements. Compared with the continuous aeration, the intermittent aeration only had a little effect on the removal of COD and NH4+-N, but could improve TN removal performance in both HCWs. Meanwhile, increasing the aeration volume was beneficial to remove NH4+-N but not TN in HCWs. In addition, although the pollutant removal performances in both HCWs were impacted, the removal capacity of TN in VF-HF was only affected a little, when HLR was increased by 50%. The contribution of plants’ uptake accounted for about 10% to nitrogen removal and 20% to phosphorus removal in both HCWs. The biomass at the filler surface near the plant rhizosphere was greater than that in the non-rhizosphere zones, and the impact of plant rhizosphere on the nitrification activity of biofilm was significantly greater than that on denitrification activity in both HCWs.

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Funding

This work was funded by the Science and Technology Innovation Demonstration project of social development of Xi’an Science and Technology Bureau (Grant number: 20SFSF0011), and the Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province (2021ZDLSF05-04).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an, China

    Fei-Long Yan, Yi Wang, Wen-Huai Wang, Heng Zhang & Yu-Cong Zheng

  2. Key Laboratory of Northwest Water Resource, Environment and Ecology, MOE, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an, 710055, People’s Republic of China

    Fei-Long Yan, Yi Wang, Wen-Huai Wang, Heng Zhang & Yu-Cong Zheng

  3. Power China-Northwest Engineering Corporation Limited, Xi’an, 710065, China

    Xiao-Mei Kou, Shi-Zhang Wu & Tian Shao

Authors
  1. Fei-Long Yan
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  2. Yi Wang
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  3. Wen-Huai Wang
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  4. Heng Zhang
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Contributions

FLY designed the experiment, analyzed the data, and wrote the original manuscript. YW guided the conduct of the experiment and the revision of the draft. WHW contributed significantly to the analysis and preparation of the manuscript. HZ helped perform the experiment. YCZ contributed to the conception of the experimental program. XMK, SZW, and TS provided the site for the experiment, as well as the early demonstration and investigation. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yi Wang.

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Responsible editor: Alexandros Stefanakis

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Highlights

• Hybrid of VFCW followed by HFCW is conducive to treat domestic sewage.

• Intermittent aeration is the optimal mode for the efficient TN removal by HCW.

• P. australis uptake can contribute about 10% and 20% to the removal of TN and TP.

• Plant rhizosphere greatly affects nitrification activity of biofilm in CW system.

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Yan, FL., Wang, Y., Wang, WH. et al. Effect of first-stage aeration on treatment of domestic sewage in different hybrid constructed wetlands. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 43402–43416 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12449-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12449-0

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