Nutrients removal from secondary effluent by using different constructed wetland systems

Constructed wetland was recognized as an economic and ecological-friendly technique to reduce excess nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in secondary effluent from sewage treatment plants. In this study, the removal capacity of non-planted control treatment, one stage constructed wetland with different feeding strategies, and multi-stage constructed wetland on chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N) and total phosphorus (TP)were evaluated. The results showed that all the planted treatments displayed superior removal efficiency for COD and nutrients in compare with the non-planted control treatment. The feeding strategy could influence COD andN removal rate that the averageremoval rate of the COD, TN, and NH4+-N in intermittent feeding treatment (61.3%, 52.6% and 88.7%) was much higher than continuous feeding treatment (46.8%, 20.6% and 73.9%). Higher TN and TP removal rate was observed in multi-stage constructed wetland (74.1% and 98.1%) than the single-stage constructed wetland (20.6% and 96.9%). This implied that intermittent feeding strategy and the multi-stage constructed wetland may have a good potential for removing nutrients from secondary effluent.