Surface flow constructed wetland with composite plant bed for pretreatment of micro-polluted Yellow River raw water in China

In order to investigate the feasibility of pretreating the micro-polluted Yellow River raw water by constructed wetland, an experiment was conducted using a surface flow constructed wetland with composite plant bed. The contamination removal efficiency and their trends in the wetland treatment system were studied under different hydraulic loading rates(HLR). The contamination removal efficiencies were compared according to the seasonal change under optimum HLR. The result shows that in the same season, under different hydraulic loadings ranging from 2 to 6 m3/(m2·d) at the same period, the best HLR is 4 m3/(m2·d) in the experimental system. The average removal rates of COD, TN, ammoniacal nitrogen(NH4+-N), and TP in the constructed wetland are 38.37%, 45.97%, 39.86% and 41.69%, respectively. According to China Standard for Surface Water Resources (GB3838-2002), mean effluent of COD, TN, NH4+-N and TP can nearly reach Grade Ⅲ, GradeⅤ, GradeⅠand GradeⅠ, respectively. Furthermore, treatment efficiency of the system in summer is obvious higher than that in other seasons. The expenditure of constructing the constructed wetland with the average treating capacity of 176 m3/d and lifetime of 20 years is 17075.00 RMB. The average disposal cost is summed up to 0.17 RMB/m3, which shows that the pretreatment of the micro-polluted Yellow River raw water by constructed wetland is feasible.