Constructed wetlands (CW) and soil aquifer treatment (SAT) represent natural
wastewater treatment systems (NWTSs). The high costs of conventional
wastewater treatment techniques encourage more studies to investigate lower cost
treatment methods which make these appropriate for developing and also in
developed countries.
The main objective of this research was to investigate the removals of
nutrients and organic micropollutants (OMPs) through SAT, CW and the
CW-SAT hybrid system.
CWs are an efficient technology to purify and remove different nutrients as well as
OMPs from wastewater. They removed most of the dissolved organic matter
(DOC), total nitrogen (TN), ammonium and phosphate. Furthermore, CWs
aeration could be used as one of the alternatives to reduce CWs footprint by around
10%. The vegetation in CWs plays an essential role in the treatment especially for
nitrogen and phosphate removals, it is responsible for the removal of 15%, 55%,
38%, and 22% for TN, dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), nitrate and phosphate,
respectively. CWs achieved a very high removal for some OMPs; they attenuated
acetaminophen, caffeine, fluoxetine and trimethoprim (>90%) under different
redox conditions. Moreover, it was found that increasing temperature (up to 36 C)
could enhance the removals of atenolol, caffeine, DEET and trimethoprim by 17%,
14%, 28% and 45%, respectively. On the other hand, some OMPs, were found to
be removed by vegetation such as: acetaminophen, caffeine, fluoxetine,
sulfamethoxazole, and trimethoprim. Moreover, atenolol, caffeine, fluoxetine and
trimethoprim, showed high removal (>80%) through SAT system. It was also
found that, temperature increasing and using primary instead of secondary effluent
could enhance the removal of some OMPs.
The CWs performance study showed that these systems are adapted to the
prevailing extreme arid conditions and the average percent removals are about,
88%, 96%, 98%, 98% and 92%, for COD, BOD and TSS, ammonium and
phosphate, respectively.
Additionally, the natural hybrid system (CW-SAT) can provide an effective
treatment technology of reclaimed water for replenishing aquifers and subsequent
reuse. This hybrid system embodied the performance advantages of both processes
and exhibits a high potential for removal of OMPs, nutrients, metals as well as
pathogens, bacteria and viruses.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:kaust.edu.sa/oai:repository.kaust.edu.sa:10754/324605 |
| Date | 06 1900 |
| Creators | Hamadeh, Ahmed F. |
| Contributors | Amy, Gary, Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) Division, Saikaly, Pascal, Schuster, Gerard T., Lens, Piet |
| Source Sets | King Abdullah University of Science and Technology |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
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