Hydraulic and hydrological aspects of an evapotranspiration-constructed wetland combined system for household greywater treatment

ABSTRACT

Constructed wetlands systems demand preliminary and primary treatment to remove solids present in greywater (GW) to avoid or reduce clogging processes. The current paper aims to assess hydraulic and hydrological behavior in an improved constructed wetland system, which has a built-in anaerobic digestion chamber (AnC), GW is distributed to the evapotranspiration and treatment tank (CEvaT), combined with a subsurface horizontal flow constructed wetland (SSHF-CW). The results show that both the plants present in the units and the AnC improve hydraulic and volumetric efficiency, decrease short-circuiting and improve mixing conditions in the system. Moreover, the hydraulic conductivity measured on-site indicates that the presence of plants in the system and the flow distribution pattern provided by the AnC might reduce clogging in the SSHF-CW. It is observed that rainfall enables salt elimination, thus increasing evapotranspiration (ET), which promotes effluent reduction and enables the system to have zero discharge when reuse is unfeasible.

KEYWORDS:

• Anaerobic digestion
• clogging
• evapotranspiration
• hydrodynamic
• hydraulic conductivity
• salinization

Additional information

Funding

The study was supported by FINEP, a Brazilian Funding Authority of Studies and Projects under grant number 01.10.0507.00 (Water and Energy in Social Housing 07/2009) and by the Brazilian National Council for the Improvement of Higher Education (CAPES).