Assessment of pre-digested piggery wastewater treatment operations with surface flow integrated constructed wetland systems

Harrington, C; Scholz, M

Abstract

Non-point source pollution such as land-spreading of nitrogen-rich piggery wastewater poses a significant
threat to surface waters. The aim was to examine the treatment of anaerobically digested piggery
wastewater using four different meso-scale integrated constructed wetland (ICW) systems
planted with Glyceria maxima. Four replicates were used for each system to assess differences due
to nutrient loading, hydraulic loading and effluent recycling. All systems were effective in removing
total organic nitrogen, ammonia-nitrogen, nitrate-nitrogen and molybdate reactive phosphorus. However,
ammonia-nitrogen removal was the greatest challenge for high flow rates (>100 m3/ha/d). Nitrification
was higher in summer than winter. Findings show for the first time that effluent recycling
within ICW was beneficial to lower ammonia-nitrogen but was associated with higher operational
costs. The cost–benefit ratio based on ammonia-nitrogen removal for standard, recycling, high nutrients
and high flow rate treatments was 1.08:1.04:1.06:1.00. It follows that a high flow rate was only
marginally more cost-effective.

Citation

Harrington, C., & Scholz, M. (2010). Assessment of pre-digested piggery wastewater treatment operations with surface flow integrated constructed wetland systems. Bioresource Technology, 101(20), 7713-7723. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2010.03.147

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2010
• Deposit Date: Jan 30, 2012
• Journal: Bioresource Technology
• Print ISSN: 0960-8524
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 101
• Issue: 20
• Pages: 7713-7723
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2010.03.147
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2010.03.147