Design of a Reed Bed System for Treatment of Domestic Wastewater using Native Plants

Abstract

The reed bed system is one types of phytoremediation technology for removing pollutants from the environment. This technology provides an environmentally friendly approach to treating contamination with competitive cost, compared to the physico-chemical treatment. The design of reed bed system is highly important in order to achieve the highest pollutant removal efficiency. The design of reed bed system affects the natural oxygen transfer from the environment. The reed bed system was proven to have a good efficiency in removing Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Suspended Solid (TSS), Total Dissolve Solid (TDS), Total Nitrogen (TN) and a number of bacteria. In addition to the oxygen transfer from the environment, the interaction among pollutant-plants-medium-microbes also plays a vital role in the removal of pollutant using the reed bed system. It was suggested that the future related research should accommodate the importance of several environmental conditions to the interaction between pollutant, plants, medium and microbes as well as the impact of those interactions on the pollutant removal efficiency.

Keywords

• phytoremediation
• interactions
• green technology
• domestic wastewater
• local plants