Constructed Wetlands: An Emerging Green Technology for Phosphorus Treatment in Industrial Wastewater

Abstract

In recent decades, constructed wetlands (CWs) have been used successfully for the treatment of industrial wastewater. This work reviewed the phosphorus (P) removal of industrial wastewater using an emerging green technology such as CWs. The removal of P in the CWs is generated through different transformations of P in the soil and water column, which includes processes such as sorption, desorption, precipitation, decomposition, fragmentation, leaching, mineralization, sedimentation, and assimilation of plants and microorganisms. The total phosphorus (TP) removal efficiencies of different industrial wastewaters in CWs showed values from 26% to 68%. The highest efficiencies (55–68%) were shown in the wastewater of industries from animal and agricultural origin, except for the wastewater of the swine industry that had a removal value of 37%. It should be noted that there is lack information about the P removal from industrial effluents in CWs. This situation can be explained because the objective of different researches is focused on the organic matter and nitrogen removal which makes it difficult to compare the performance for removing P in industrial wastewater.