Mechanisms of Micropollutant Elimination in Vertical Flow Constructed Wetlands

One of the biggest global challenges is the enormous growth of the population. With the growing population rises consequentially production and release of anthropogenic compounds, which then, due to insufficient wastewater treatment system, become pollutants, more precisely micropollutants (MPs). Advanced wastewater technologies presented in this dissertation are solutions applied for targeted elimination of MPs. Ozonation and adsorption on Activated Carbon or their combination belong to the most used advanced wastewater treatment technologies in Europe, however, they are suited for effluents of larger wastewater treatment plants. Therefore, an attempt has been made to test Constructed Wetlands (CWs) as an advanced wastewater treatment technology for small-to-medium sized WWTPs, which are typical for rural areas at the catchment of the river Sûre, the geographical border between Luxembourg and Germany. The efficiency of the CWs for the removal of 27 selected compounds has been tested at different scales (laboratory to pilot) in the Interreg Greater Region project EmiSûre 2017-2021 (Développement de stratégies visant à réduire l'introduction de micropolluants dans les cours d'eau de la zone transfrontalière germanoluxembourgeoise). The results of the project confirmed high ability of CWs to remove MPs from municipal effluents. The quantification of the main mechanisms contributing to the elimination of MPs within the CWs was thus established as the main target of the present PhD research, given the evidence of their high ability in the EmiSûre project. The main mechanisms have been identified as adsorption on the soil of the wetland, phytoremediation by the wetland macrophytes and bioremediation by the wetland microorganisms. The nature of the doctoral thesis is cumulative, the core of the thesis are the following four publications:
• Publication [I] describes the usage of CWs as a post-treatment step for municipal effluents.
• Publication [II] assesses the role of adsorption of the targeted MPs on the used substrates within the studied CWs and presents characterization of the wetland substrates.
• Publication [III] describes the role of the wetland macrophytes in the phytoremediation of the targeted MPs within the studied CWs. Furthermore, it reveals a comparison of the different macrophyte types in varying vegetation stadia.
• Publication [IV] outlines the role of the wetland microbes in the bioremediation of the targeted MPs within the studied CWs. Moreover, the wetland microbes known to be able to digest MPs or contribute to the elimination of MPs are identified and quantified.
Results suggest adsorption as leading removal mechanism (achieved average removal 18 out of 27 compounds >80%), followed by bioremediation (achieved average removal 18 out of 27 compounds >40%) and phytoremediation (achieved average removal 17 out of 27 compounds <20%).
The research described contributes to the extension of knowledge about CWs applied for the elimination of MPs from water. Some of the outcomes (deepened knowledge about soil influencing adsorption, recommendations for adjustment of operational parameters, etc.) could be used as a tool for enhancement of the wetland’s treatment efficiency. The research is concluded by recommendations for further investigations of the individual mechanisms (e.g. application of artificial aeration or circulation of the reaction matrix could result in enhancement of bioremediation).