Study the Control of Nutrients Removal from Wastewater by Using Local Plants in Constructed Wetlands as Tertiary Treatment

Abstract

This paper presents the results of using a pilot-scale-constructed wetland as a tertiary treatment to the domestic wastewater by using local plants in Syria, aiming to achieve the Syrian legal standards of phosphorus and nitrogen emissions. This pilot plant consisted of tow types of wetlands.The emerged plants are placed in 3 tanks and followed by 3 tanks of free-floating plant, daily estimating the treatment of24.m3/day of effluents. The effluents were circulated in a vertical subsurface flow through a porous matrix of thick sand and gravel, in which the roots of the Arundo donax and Cattail (Typha sp.) and Bottomos (locally species Reed) were fixed. Monitoring of the pilot plant was performed through biological analyses. The flow bypassing through free-floating plant tanks will support removing the nutrients. The system offer a good degree of pollutant efficiency removal, especially for phosphorus (45% medium), TKN (80% medium), and NH4–N (60% medium).