IRIDRA

Nature-based solutions - Sustainable water management

Contact us

Mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Telephone 055.470729
Fax 055.475593
Address Via Alfonso la Marmora, 51 - 50121 - Florence

It is allowed the use of the website material provided that the website is properly referred, as specified at the end of the website page.

Select Language:

Applications of constructed wetlands

Constructed wetlands were born for the treatment of domestic and urban wastewater from small and medium size settlements. Thanks to the advance from the Scientific Community, constructed wetlands widen the fields of application to different types of wastewater. A not exhaustive list of most relevant constructed wetland application fields is following reported:

Urban Centres

Touristic activities

CSO - Combined sewer overflow

Tertiary treatment

Sludge dewatering

Agri-food industries (Dairies, Wineries)

Runoff agricultural fields

Grey water reuse

Nutrient removal

Landfill leachates

Groundwater remediation

Stormwater runoff

Olive mills

Swine wastewater

More information

After activated sludge systems, constructed wetlands are worldwide one of the most used techniques for the treatment of domestic and municipal wastewater; CW was largely used for treatment of wastewater from small settlements, even if are often adopted also for town below 5000 PE. If the land availability is not an issue, CW can be proposed also for a bigger town, as shown by the CW WWTP of Orhei (designed by IRIDRA) treating up to 20,000 PE.

Thanks to intense research activity, CW can be now used for a wide spectrum of applications: from agro-farm factories (e.g. wineries and dairies) to livestock, from stormwater runoff to nutrient removal, as well as a number of other industrial wastewater. For instance, a not exhaustive list of CW application for industrial wastewater treatment was done by Vymazal (2014) and is following reported.


Wastewater type
Type of CW Location Treatment efficiency (%)

Refinery HF, FWS, HF + FWS, VF, FWS+HF, FWS+VF Sud Africa, USA, China, Hungary, Canada, UK, Taiwan

BOD 50-99

COD 30-93

TSS 44-95

TN 19-80

TP 43-68

Benzene 65-87

Pulp and paper HF, FWS USA, China, Kenya, India

BOD 6-90

TSS 33-84

NH4-N 31-88

TP 14-54

Tannery FWS, HF, VF-HF-VF Turkey, Portugal, Tanzania, Bangladesh

COD 30-98

BOD 48-98

TSS 55-72

TKN 25-75

TP 98

Textile HF, VF, VF-HF Australia, UK, Tanzania, Portugal, Slovenia, Japan, Italy

COD  64-72

BOD 66

TSS 93

colore 72-90

 Acquaculture  HF, FWS, HF-VF, FWS-HF, VF-HF USA, Canada, Taiwan, Germany, Australia, China, Vietnam

BOD 24-99

COD 26-99

TSS 39-97

TN 21-96

TP 17-87

Winery HF, VF, HF-FWS, VF-HF-FWS, VF-HF USA, Germany, France, Italy, South Africa, Spain

BOD 70-99

COD 49-98

TSS 30-91

TN 58-90

TP 60-79

 Distillery HF India, Mexico, UK

BOD 84-85

COD 64-80

TKN 59-75

TP 79

 Brewery FWS, HF USA, South Africa

COD 20

NH4-N 80

 Abattoir  HF, FWS, VF-HF Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Ecuador,  Canada, Lithuania, Polland

BOD 77-98

COD 65-98

TSS 44-99

TN 30-74

TP 37-79

Dairy/cheese HF, HF-VF, VF-VF-HF-VF, VF-HF Denmark, New Zealand, USA, Germany, Italy, France, Lithuania, Japan

BOD 34-98

COD 92-97

TSS 40-96

TN 44-89

TP 30-88

TP

 Olive mill
 VF, FWS Turkey, Greece

COD 73-86

TSS 90

TKN 75-83

TP 83

 Fish/Seafood
HF, FWS USA, Thailand

BOD 91-99

TSS 52-90

TN 72-92

TP 72-77

Sugar industry FWS, VF USA, UK, Kenya, Thailand

BOD 89-96

COD 68-87

TSS 64-93

TN 80

TP 21-76

Potato industry
HF, FWS-VF-FWS, VF-HF-VF Netherlands, USA, Japan

COD 11-94

TSS 83

TN 54-90

TP 83

Mixed food
HF Slovenia, Italy

BOD 89

COD 90-92

TSS 81

Laundry HF Italy, India, UK, Spain, Australia, Thailand

BOD 61-89

COD 90-92

LAS 43-99

Chemical industris
HF, VF UK, Portugal

Aniline 99

Nitrobenzene 98

Sulphanic acid 99

Trinitrophenol >99

Mixed industrial
FWS-HF, FWS, VF-HF-VF China, Taiwan, Pakistan, Slovenia

BOD 66-89

COD 61-81

TSS 81-89

TP 35-62

Explosices FWS, FWS-HF USA

TNT 79

2.4DNT 58

2.6DNT 61

Steel industry
HF, VF Taiwan, China

COD 50-77, TP 6-93

Fe 94-97

Mn 81-93

Woodwaste FWS Canada

BOD 60

COD 6-50

VFA 35-69

tannini/lignina 1-42

Coke plant effluent
HF France

COD 32-52

TSS 94-96

TN 37

Coal gasification FWS USA

Se 64

As 47

B 31


 Example of CW for industrial wastewater treatment. (Vymazal 2014)

 

References

IRIDRA's authors are highlighted in bold.

Vymazal, J. (2014). Constructed wetlands for treatment of industrial wastewaters: a review. Ecological Engineering, 73, 724-751.

Wu S., Wallace S., Brix H., Kuschk P., Kipkemoi Kirui W., Masi F., Dong R., Treatment of industrial effluents in constructed wetlands: Challenges, operational strategies and overall performance, Environmental Pollution, 201, 107–120, 2015.

Wu S., Wallace S., Brix H., Kuschk P., Kipkemoi Kirui W., Masi F., Dong R., Treatment of industrial effluents in constructed wetlands: Challenges, operational strategies and overall performance, Environmental Pollution, 201, 107–120, 2015.