Online Monitoring of a Long-Term Full-Scale Constructed Wetland for the Treatment of Winery Wastewater in Italy

Anacleto Rizzo,Riccardo Bresciani,Fabio Masi,Nicola Martinuzzi

doi:10.3390/app10020555

Abstract

Nature-based solutions, such as Constructed Wetlands (CWs), for the treatment of industrial wastewater can be more efficiently operated making use of online monitored parameters as inlet/outlet flows and concentrations for specific substances. The present study compares different datasets acquired in a two-and-a-half-year-long period by normal laboratory methods and also from a specific COD/BOD sensor installed at a winery CWs wastewater treatment plant in Tuscany, Italy. The CW wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) is composed of: equalization tank (70 m3); French Reed Bed (1200 m2); horizontal subsurface flow (HF) CW (960 m2): free water system (850 m2); optional post-treatment sand filter (50 m2); and emergency recirculation. The obtained average performances for this last period are for COD 97.5%, for MBAS 93.1%, for N-NO2- 84.7%, for NO3- 39.9%, and for TP 45.5%. The online sensor has shown excellent performance in following the COD concentration patterns along the observed period. The qualitative and quantitative validity of the online sensor measurements has been assessed by statistical analysis (t-test) and reported in the paper. Online data, acquired every 30 min, availability is of extreme importance for the CW system performance optimization, for understanding the behavior of the WWTP in different operative scenarios, and finally for driving the powering on or off eventual process enhancement tools.

Highlights

Constructed wetlands (CWs— known as treatment wetlands) are nowadays recognized as reliable nature-based solutions for the treatment of domestic and municipal wastewater, and for industrial wastewater
It must be noted that the monthly pattern of effluent discharge can be affected by the precipitation pattern; monthly pattern of effluent discharge can be affected by the precipitation pattern; consideration on winery wastewater production based on data exposed in Figure 2 must be taken consideration on winery wastewater production based on data exposed in Figure 2 must be taken only as indicative of real influent hydraulic loads faced by the Constructed Wetlands (CWs) wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in the monitoring period
Only as indicative of real influent hydraulic loads faced by the CW WWTP in the monitoring period

Summary

Introduction

Constructed wetlands (CWs— known as treatment wetlands) are nowadays recognized as reliable nature-based solutions for the treatment of domestic and municipal wastewater, and for industrial wastewater. This is confirmed by numerous review works [1,2,3] and a book fully dedicated to the presentation of successful experiences in using CW for different kinds of wastewater [4]. Masi et al [5] reviewed the topic in detail: (i) discussing the peculiarity of the winery wastewater and why CWs are suitable to treat it; (ii) reporting experiences from different countries and different types of CW technologies, from simple horizontal subsurface flow systems (HF) to multistage.

Methods

Results

Conclusion