1Research Scholar, Department of Environmental Management, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu, India-24
2Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Management, Bharathidasan University, Tamilnadu, India -24
*Email: arivoli82@gmail.com
Online published on 6 December, 2013.
Constructed wetland containing tolerant aquatic macrophytes have been found to remove contaminants from domestic wastewater more efficiently. In this study, Vertical Flow Constructed wetland was applied and examined for the removal efficiency of organic and inorganic pollutants from domestic wastewater by using gravel and sand as substrates planted with Typha augustifolia (Cattail) and other without plantation which serves as a control.To evaluate the performance, three different operating Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT) 12, 24 and 36 hours were maintained. Influent and effluent samples were collected, analysed for their removal performance. The treatment efficiency was found to be maximum in cattail planted VFCW with 36 hours HRT followed by 24 and 12 hours. The removal efficiency at 36 hours HRT were found to be 84.66% for TDS, 92.90% for Turbidity, 80.53% for COD, 75.49% for BOD5, 83.51% for PO4, 88.48% for NO3. The removal efficiency of unplanted VFCWs were 64.76% for Turbidity,67.26% for TDS, 64.70% for COD, 56.45% for BOD5 64.45% for PO4, and 61.80% for NO3. When compared the removal efficiency of planted with unplanted constructed wetland, planted VFCWs shows a maximum removal the results showed that the removal efficiencies of the organics TDS, COD, BOD5, Phosphate and Nitrate were improved significantly with the extension of HRT.
Typha augustifolia, constructed wetland system, domestic wastewater, Hydrualics Retention Time, vertical flow constructed wetlands
