PMID- 28780453 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20180102 LR - 20221207 IS - 1879-1298 (Electronic) IS - 0045-6535 (Linking) VI - 186 DP - 2017 Nov TI - A novel horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetland: Reducing area requirements and clogging risk. PG - 257-268 LID - S0045-6535(17)31201-8 [pii] LID - 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.07.151 [doi] AB - The use of Constructed Wetlands (CWs) has been nowadays expanded from municipal to industrial and agro-industrial wastewaters. The main limitations of CWs remain the relatively high area requirements compared to mechanical treatment technologies and the potential occurrence of the clogging phenomenon. This study presents the findings of an innovative CW design where novel materials were used. Four pilot-scale CW units were designed, built and operated for two years. Each unit consisted of two compartments, the first of which (two thirds of the total unit length) contained either fine gravel (in two units) or random type high density polyethylene (HDPE) (in the other two units). This plastic media type was tested in a CW system for the first time. The second compartment of all four units contained natural zeolite. Two units (one with fine gravel and one with HDPE) were planted with common reeds, while the other two were kept unplanted. Second cheese whey was introduced into the units, which were operated under hydraulic residence times (HRT) of 2 and 4 days. After a two-year operation and monitoring period, pollutant removal rates were approximately 80%, 75% and 90% for COD, ammonium and ortho-phosphate, respectively, while temperature and HRT had no significant effect on pollutant removal. CWs containing the plastic media achieved the same removal rates as those containing gravel, despite receiving three times higher hydraulic surface loads (0.08 m/d) and four times higher organic surface loads (620 g/m(2)/d). This reveals that the use of HDPE plastic media could reduce CW surface area requirements by 75%. CI - Copyright (c) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. FAU - Tatoulis, Triantafyllos AU - Tatoulis T AD - Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management, University of Patras, Agrinio, Greece. FAU - Akratos, Christos S AU - Akratos CS AD - Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management, University of Patras, Agrinio, Greece. Electronic address: cakratos@upatras.gr. FAU - Tekerlekopoulou, Athanasia G AU - Tekerlekopoulou AG AD - Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management, University of Patras, Agrinio, Greece. FAU - Vayenas, Dimitrios V AU - Vayenas DV AD - Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, Patras, Greece; Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences, Foundation of Research and Technology (FORTH), Patras, Greece. FAU - Stefanakis, Alexandros I AU - Stefanakis AI AD - Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management, University of Patras, Agrinio, Greece. LA - eng PT - Journal Article DEP - 20170801 PL - England TA - Chemosphere JT - Chemosphere JID - 0320657 RN - 0 (Plastics) RN - 0 (Waste Water) SB - IM MH - Environmental Restoration and Remediation/*methods MH - Facility Design and Construction/*methods MH - Plastics MH - Waste Disposal, Fluid/*methods MH - Wastewater MH - *Wetlands OTO - NOTNLM OT - Area requirements OT - Clogging OT - Constructed wetlands OT - Horizontal subsurface flow OT - Second cheese whey OT - Zeolite EDAT- 2017/08/07 06:00 MHDA- 2018/01/03 06:00 CRDT- 2017/08/07 06:00 PHST- 2017/05/18 00:00 [received] PHST- 2017/07/18 00:00 [revised] PHST- 2017/07/28 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2017/08/07 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2018/01/03 06:00 [medline] PHST- 2017/08/07 06:00 [entrez] AID - S0045-6535(17)31201-8 [pii] AID - 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.07.151 [doi] PST - ppublish SO - Chemosphere. 2017 Nov;186:257-268. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.07.151. Epub 2017 Aug 1.