Water Science and Technology (Mar 2024)
Effect of floating treatment wetland coverage ratio and operating parameters on nitrogen removal: toward design optimization
Abstract
Floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) have the potential to improve the quality of wastewater discharges, yet design basics are unavailable to size these systems. This study investigates the effect of FTWs' coverage ratio and hydraulic retention time on agri-food wastewater treatment. This was studied in a pilot-scale experiment comprising four lagoons (6.5 m3 each) fed with real effluent from an existing tertiary treatment lagoon. An evaluation of FTW of different sizes (L24, L48, and L72 representing 24, 48, and 72% of pilot lagoons surface areas) and a control, L0 (without FTW), was performed over 16 months. Overall, L72 and L48 moderately improved total nitrogen (TN) mass removal compared to L0 (p < 0.05), while L24 exhibited similar TN mass removal (p = 0.196). The highest improvement was observed for L72, exhibiting up to 55% (mean of 13%) greater N mass removal than the control. The net increase in TN removal by FTWs was mainly related to denitrification, promoted by decreasing dissolved oxygen for increasing FTW coverage ratio. Residence time, temperature, and dissolved oxygen were the main parameters driving TN removal by FTWs. Retrofitting existing lagoons with FTW can facilitate N retrieval through plant harvesting, thereby reducing N remobilization from sediment (common in conventional lagoons). HIGHLIGHTS Nitrogen removal of floating treatment wetland (FTW) of different sizes was investigated under 16 months at the pilot scale.; Increasing the FTW coverage ratio to 72% improved total nitrogen (TN) removal by a mean of 12% compared to a conventional lagoon.; FTW promotes TN removal through denitrification and plant accumulation.; Plants could accumulate up to 36% of TN removed by FTW.; Residence time, temperature, and dissolved oxygen were the main parameters driving TN removal by FTW.;
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