Comparison of floating-bed wetland and gravel filter amended with limestone and sawdust for sewage treatment

Fahim, Raana; Lu, Xiwu; Jilani, Ghulam; Hussain, Javid; Hussain, Ittehad

Comparison of floating-bed wetland and gravel filter amended with limestone and sawdust for sewage treatment

2019

Fahim, Raana | Lu, Xiwu | Jilani, Ghulam | Hussain, Javid | Hussain, Ittehad

Advancements in the design and technology of constructed wetlands for efficient removal of wastewater contaminants are ever in progress to develop situation-based economical systems. Here, we entrenched two horizontal sub-surface flow constructed wetlands (HSFCW) with either chemical, viz. limestone (HSFCW-LS) or organic, viz. sawdust (HSFCW-SD) substrates, and compared them with biological method, viz. growing of water spinach in floating-bed-constructed wetland (FBCW-WS) to enhance the performance of CWs. Same sewage wastewater was used as influent in each fortified CW replicated thrice. Sewage was replaced weekly, for a total of 12 weeks of experimentation. Sampling of raw sewage from influent was undertaken at the inlet in the beginning, and that of treated effluent from the outlet after a week of treatments. Quality of raw sewage used weekly during experimentation remained almost uniform and near to the wastewater standards. Cumulative data of treated wastewater depicted that the FBCW-WS achieved the highest performance in the removal of total nitrogen (TN), [Formula: see text]–N, and total phosphorus (TP) with average removal efficiencies of 75.9, 90.5, and 94.3%, respectively. Whereas, HSFCW-SD performed better for [Formula: see text]–N, FC, and TSS with corresponding removal efficiency of 77.5, 64.3, and 74.2% while HSFCW-LS showed average performance. This study concludes that performance of biological method of macrophyte cultivation (FBCW-WS) is significantly superior to chemical and organic substrates, so it could be more effective, economical, and sustainable approach for sewage treatment.

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