Long-term operation of Kickuth-type constructed wetland applied to municipal wastewater treatment in temperate climate

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the problem of changes of effectiveness of Kickuth-type constructed wetland with subsurface flow applied to domestic wastewater treatment. This study is based on an example of a wetland 3000 m in surface, serving 800 inhabitants, located in Poland. The results of chemical analysis showed that after an initial year of 'start-up time', the efficiency of pollutant removal gradually increased to reach an apex in the 6th year of operation. Such maximum efficiency continued up to the 10th year of operation; afterwards it gradually dropped. Moreover, after 12 years of operation, a serious problem with overland flow was observed, which indicated the porous media clogging processes.

Oxygen Consumption in Two Subsurface Wastewater Infiltration Systems under Continuous Operation Mode

“…The K values depend on operation parameters and construction and design of the constructed soil filters [21,33,39]. High K values indicate a more efficient removal, and therefore lower surface area needed for the treatment [21,23,33]. The area requirement for this installation (0.3 m 2 pe −1 for the horizontal arrangement and 0.1 m 2 pe −1 for the vertical arrangement) is significantly lower than those found for VFCW (between 0.8 and 5.5 m 2 pe −1 ) [4,5].…”

“…The arrangement of Equation ( 3) in terms of areal rate constant (K 1 , m h −1 ) leads to a first-order plug flow model (Kickuth equation) for correlating both COD and ammonia nitrogen values from the influent and effluent of the four filter beds in both pilot plants, as expressed in Equation ( 4) [23]…”

Constructed Wetlands for Municipal Wastewater Treatment: A Sustainable Approach

“…Kickuth Type Constructed wetlands are used especially in European countries in which cohesive soil is used as a medium for the vegetation growth and filtration unit(CPCB, 2019).The municipal wastewater treatment for 10 year was analyzed by using sub-surface flow Kickuth type constructed wetland in Poland. During study (Mucha et al, 2018) observed that the efficiency of the wetland increased up-to 10 years from the initial year then the efficiency decreased and many problems like beds clogging evolved. They also observed that BOD, COD and TSS removal was quite satisfactory and performance slowed down after 12 years.…”

Technological reliability of pollutant removal in different seasons in one-stage constructed wetland system with horizontal flow operating in the moderate climate

“…In Poland, such systems have been used in various technological configurations for about 30 years [26]. The research concerning CWs in recent years focus mainly on the processes and effects of pollution removal [24,[27][28][29][30], as well as determining the reliability of these systems [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] or the use of online systems to check the performance of the CW [40]. However, most of the existing papers usually describe the reliability of CWs at a given time, without taking into account changes in thermal conditions during the year.…”