Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment: Five Decades of Experience

Abstract

The first experiments on the use of wetland plants to treat wastewaters were carried out in the early 1950s by Dr. Käthe Seidel in Germany and the first full-scale systems were put into operation during the late 1960s. Since then, the subsurface systems have been commonly used in Europe while free water surface systems have been more popular in North America and Australia. During the 1970s and 1980s, the information on constructed wetland technology spread slowly. But since the 1990 s the technology has become international, facilitated by exchange among scientists and researchers around the world. Because of the need for more effective removal of ammonia and total nitrogen, during the 1990 s and 2000s vertical and horizontal flow constructed wetlands were combined to complement each other to achieve higher treatment efficiency. Today, constructed wetlands are recognized as a reliable wastewater treatment technology and they represent a suitable solution for the treatment of many types of wastewater.

Removal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products from wastewater using algae-based technologies: a review

“…Constructed wetlands based on shallow pond, beds, or trenches containing aquatic macrophytes are considered to be cost-effective in treating wastewater due to a relatively low cost in construction, operation, and maintenance (Wu et al 2015b). Constructed wetlands include surface horizontal flow, subsurface horizontal flow, and vertical flow systems according to their flow regime, and can be used in combination to take advantage of different systems (Vymazal 2011). Removal of PPCPs in constructed wetlands has been found to be highly dependent on the physical-chemical properties of the PPCPs, and affected by the configuration and operation of the wetland and the environmental conditions (Garcia-Rodríguez et al 2014;Zhang et al 2014a).…”

Removal of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes from domestic sewage by constructed wetlands: Optimization of wetland substrates and hydraulic loading

“…Constructed wetlands (CWs) are artificial wetlands which are designed and constructed to manipulate the natural processes to treat wastewater, and can be classified into surface flow and subsurface flow wetlands (vertical or horizontal) according to their hydrology and flow path (Ji et al, 2002;Truu et al, 2009;Vymazal, 2010;Zhi and Ji, 2012). Compared to conventional wastewater treatment technologies, CWs have economical and eco-friendly advantages due to their low-cost, easy operation and low maintenance (Puigagut et al, 2008;Faulwetter et al, 2009).…”

Study of nitrogen removal performance in pilot-scale multi-stage vermi-biofilter: operating conditions impacts and nitrogen speciation transformation

“…Tolerant plants and soil media are used to treat wastewater efficiently at low-energy consumption. The corporate function of plants, soil media and microorganisms can produce effluent which removes more nitrogen than the effluent produced by conventional WWTPs (Vymazal 2007(Vymazal , 2011Kim et al 2011).…”