Ecological Engineering 75 (2015) 462469

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Ecological Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecoleng

Practice of integrated system of biolter and constructed wetland in

highly polluted surface water treatment
Zhaoqian Jing a, * , Rui He a , Yong Hu b , Qigui Niu b , Shiwei Cao a , Yu-You Li b,c, **
a
b
c

College of Civil Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, PR China

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tohoku University, 6-6-06 Aza-Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8579, Japan
Key Lab of Northwest Water Resource, Environment and Ecology, MOE, Xian University of Architecture and Technology, Xian 710055, PR China

A R T I C L E I N F O

A B S T R A C T

Article history:
Received 21 August 2014
Received in revised form 5 December 2014
Accepted 19 December 2014
Available online xxx

To nd an appropriate process for highly polluted surface water, an integrated system with a double-layer
biolter and a constructed wetland was developed. In the biolter packed with carbon-rich ceramic
granules, alternation of nitrication and denitrication was realized resulting in prominent TN (total
nitrogen) removal. The constructed wetland was designed in subsurface ow mode with 0.15 m depth
lled with calcium-rich ceramic granules, which improved phosphorus removal greatly. COD (chemical
oxygen demand), TN, NH4+-N and TP (total phosphorus) in the nal efuent were mostly below 30, 15,
5 and 0.5 mg/L, respectively. The overall phosphorus removal rate in the constructed wetland reached
158.9 g/m2 year, in which granules interception and plants uptake respectively contributed 74.7% and
25.3%. After one years operation, the calcium content on the surface of the granules in the constructed
wetland decreased obviously, whereas phosphorus content increased greatly.
2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Biolter
Ceramic granule
Constructed wetland
Denitrication
Phosphorus removal

1. Introduction
In recent years, the rapidly growing population living in urban
areas has caused many conicts related with water demand
increase and water pollution deterioration (Kowalczak and
Kundzewicz, 2011; Paredes et al., 2010; Rahman and Hossain,
2008). In cities, the surface water bodies such as rivers, lakes and
ponds not only accept runoffs and storms, but also act as
wastewater drainage pathways. In many situations, the incomplete
separation of rainwater and sanitary wastewater has made large
quantities of wastewater discharged into the surface water,
resulting in serious pollution (Xu et al., 2011). There are many
treatment methods for the polluted water bodies such as
coagulation, ltration, ecological oating bed, aquatic plants
restoration, articial aeration and microbial remediation. These
methods are usually efcient in lightly polluted situation (Li et al.,
2010). To the water bodies containing high levels of organics,
nitrogen and phosphorus, these methods above cannot work well

* Corresponding author at: College of Civil Engineering, Nanjing Forestry

University, Nanjing 210037, PR China. Tel.: +86 25 85427691; fax: +86 25 85427763.
** Corresponding author at: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Tohoku University, 6-6-06 Aza-Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8579, Japan.
E-mail addresses: zqjing@njfu.edu.cn (Z. Jing), yyli@epl1.civil.tohoku.ac.jp
(Y.-Y. Li).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2014.12.015
0925-8574/ 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

(Chen et al., 2006). Most of the pollutants in the highly polluted

water are in dissolved forms, so coagulation and ltration also
become incapable. Direct ecological remediation or restoration
measures in water bodies are suggestible to climatic variation and
vulnerable to large storms. Moreover, the quantities and main
indices of the polluted water usually uctuate greatly at different
time, so the regular processes for wastewater treatment are also
not appropriate (Jing et al., 2001). To get satisfying performance in
treating such highly polluted surface water, appropriate process
needs to be found.
Generally, trickling lters do not require passive aeration (Lahav
et al., 2001), and can remove organics and nitrogen simultaneously
with high efciency. In recent years, trickling lters are widely
used in wastewater treatment, preliminary treatment of micropolluted water source (van den Akkera et al., 2008) and
recirculation treatment of aquaculture water (Eding et al.,
2006). However, although trickling lters are efcient in ammonia
removal, their denitrication efciency is usually low. To improve
TN removal efciency, extra anoxic or anaerobic reactors for
denitrication are usually needed before or after the trickling
lters. Constructed wetland is considered as another efcient
method for polluted water treatment owing to its low maintenance
requirements and robust performance (Toscano et al., 2009). With
the combination of lter materials interception and aquatic plants
uptake, constructed wetland can remove organics, nitrogen and

Z. Jing et al. / Ecological Engineering 75 (2015) 462469

463

Table 1
Physicochemical data of the two kinds of granules.
Carbon-rich granules in BFa

Total pore area (m2/g)

Average pore diameter (nm)
Porosity (%)
Particle diameter (mm)
Carbon content on the surface (%)
Calcium content on the surface (%)
a
b

Calcium-rich granules in CWb

Original

Upper

Lower

Original

Inlet

Outlet

79.6
22.0
69.4
6.0
10.4
2.1

68.5
18.5
60.5
6.2
21.8
2.2

73.4
20.3
63.8
6.1
12.6
2.4

23.3
20.4
47.8
8.0
0.0
23.2

21.7
19.8
44.5
8.1
15.9
5.6

22.5
20.1
46.1
8.1
11.3
12.1

BF: Biolter.
CW: Constructed wetland.

phosphorus simultaneously (Rai et al., 2013). Nevertheless, when it

is used in highly polluted water treatment, large area is usually
needed. Moreover, in low temperature period when the aquatic
plants fade, the performance of the constructed wetland usually
deteriorates owing to the low activity of microorganisms and
plants. To get better performance, larger area or higher retention
time is usually needed (Akratos and Tsihrintzis, 2007). There have
been several studies which used biolter as pre-treatment and
constructed wetland or submerged lter bed as subsequent
treatment in domestic wastewater treatment (Jenssen et al.,
2005, 2010). These integrated systems got satisfying performance
in organic pollutants, nitrogen and phosphorus removal even in
cold climates.
In this research, to remove the main pollutants in highly
polluted river water, a double-layer biolter and a constructed
wetland were integrated together. The biolter was mainly used
for organics and nitrogen removal, whereas the constructed
wetland was built for phosphorus removal and other residual
pollutants polishing. The biolter had a trickling upper layer and a
submerged lower layer, both of which were lled with carbon-rich
ceramic granules. Carbon and its compounds in the granules can
signicantly increase the porosity and specic surface area of
ceramic granules (Prasad et al., 2012), which were the vital indices
for microorganisms adhesion and propagation onto the granules.
When water from the highly polluted river owed down through
the two layers, alternating aerobic and anoxic conditions were
realized, resulting in prominent nitrogen removal by nitrication
and denitrication. After bioltration, the water owed through
the constructed wetland lled with a thin layer of calcium-rich
ceramic granules and planted with Cyperus alternifolius and Canna.
The calcium in the ceramic granules could be combined with
phosphorus in different forms of calcium phosphate (Koiv et al.,
2010). Thus phosphorus removal capacity of the constructed
wetland was enhanced greatly. Even in low temperature period,
there was no worry of high-level phosphorus leakage. C.
alternifolius and Canna were also quite helpful for phosphorus
and other nutrients removal in their growing season (Cui et al.,
2011). The overall performance of this integrated system in COD
(chemical oxygen demand), TN (total nitrogen), NH4+-N (ammonia) and TP (total phosphorus) in one year was studied. The
pollutants removal characteristics along the treatment process in
different seasons were investigated. The variation of the constituents on the surface of the ceramic granules of the constructed
wetland was also explored to ascertain the mechanism of
phosphorus removal.

(Sakadevan and Bavor, 1998). In the double-layer biolter, one kind

of ceramic granules with high content of carbon was packed. In the
constructed wetland, a thin layer of ceramic granules with high
calcium content was placed.
These two kinds of ceramic granules were characterized with a
mercury porosimeter (Autopore 9500, Micromeritics, USA) and an
energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS, GENESIS, EDAX, USA)
integrated with a scanning electron microscope (SEM, Quanta 200,
FEI, Holand). Table 1 contains the main physicochemical data of the
two kinds of granules at the beginning and after one years
operation in the upper, lower layers of the biolter and inlet, outlet
of the constructed wetland. At the beginning, the total pore area
and porosity of the carbon-rich granules reached 79.6 m2/g and
69.4%, respectively, which was much higher than 23.3 m2/g and
47.8% of the calcium-rich granules. The average pore diameter of
the two kinds of granules was 22.0 nm and 20.4 nm, respectively.
The results of SEM-EDS indicated carbon content on the surface of
the carbon-rich granules reached 10.4%, whereas there was no
carbon detected on the surface of the calcium-rich granules.
However, the surface of the calcium-rich granules contained 23.2%
of calcium, which was much higher than 2.1% on the surface of the
carbon-rich granules. After one years operation, there were not
many changes in pore area, average pore diameter and porosity in
the two kinds of granules. The minor rise of particle diameter and
obvious increase of carbon content on the surface of the granules
might be attributed to the adhesion of organic pollutants and
propagation of microorganisms onto the granules.
2.2. Pilot system
The pilot system shown in Fig. 1 was built beside a highly
polluted river in Nanjing, China. The integrated system was
combined with a double-layer cylindrical biolter and a subsurface
constructed wetland.
The double-layer biolter had a diameter of 1.3 m and
consisted of a trickling upper layer and submerged lower layer

2. Material and methods

2.1. Material
The lter material is very important for biolter and
constructed wetland. Suitable material can improve pollutants
removal in biolter (Qiu et al., 2010) and constructed wetland

Fig. 1. Schematic representation of the integrated system with a double-layer

biolter and a constructed wetland. (SP: sampling point).

464

Z. Jing et al. / Ecological Engineering 75 (2015) 462469

with heights of 1.2 m and 0.7 m, respectively. Both layers were

lled with the carbon-rich ceramic granules with uniform
diameter of 6.0 mm. The constructed wetland had the dimensions
of 1. 5 m  6.6 m  0.8 m (width  length  depth), and was lled
with 0.35 m gravels (1525 mm), 0.15 m calcium-rich ceramic
granules (8.0 mm) and 0.2 m medium sands (0.21.2 mm) from
bottom to top. The rst half and latter half of the constructed
wetland were respectively planted with C. alternifolius and Canna.
In the double-layer biolter, there were three sampling points
(SP1, SP2 and SP3) located in the middle of each layer and at the
bottom of the upper layer. In the constructed wetland, except the
sampling points for the biolter efuent (SP4) and wetland
efuent, there were other two sampling points (SP5 and SP6). The
polluted water in the river was pumped to the elevated water tank
over the biolter and trickled down to the naturally aerated upper
layer. After trickling through the granules of the upper layer, the
water entered the submerged lower layer. During the spatial
alternation of aerobic and anoxic conditions in the biolter,
organics, nitrogen and suspended solids were removed simultaneously. After bioltration, the water was introduced into the
subsurface constructed wetland to remove phosphorus and other
residual pollutants.
At the beginning, this biolter was inoculated with 100 L
sediment sludge from the highly polluted river, and C. alternifolius
and Canna were planted in the constructed wetland. Then this
integrated system was operated continuously with an average
disposal scale of 6 m3/day in one year.

2.3. Polluted water characteristics

The integrated system was directly fed with the polluted water
in the nearby river. The main indices of inuent during this study
were as follows: COD 26209 mg/L, TN 6.938.3 mg/L, NH4+-N 2.2
35.8 mg/L, TP 0.33.8 mg/L and pH 6.18.3. The higher values of the
pollutants were nearly that in sanitary wastewater. However, the
main indices uctuated greatly owing to the irregular drainage
along the river. The variation of stream ow in different seasons
and weathers also aggravated the uctuation of water quality.
2.4. Analytical methods
The samples from the inuent, efuent and sampling points
were taken regularly and the concentrations of COD, NH4+-N, TN
and TP in the water were analyzed according to the American
Public Health Association method (APHA et al., 1995). pH,
temperature and dissolved oxygen were monitored regularly.
Elements composition of the ceramic granules was determined
with SEM-EDS.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Overall performance of the integrated system
As shown in Fig. 2, the inuent from the river uctuated greatly
at different time. However, this integrated system always

Fig. 2. Overall performance of this integrated system in one year.

Z. Jing et al. / Ecological Engineering 75 (2015) 462469

465

Fig. 3. Average pollutants removal variation in different months.

performed well in spite of the inuent variation. According to the

data in Fig. 2, the average variation of COD, TN, NH4+-N and TP in
different months in this system was illustrated in Fig. 3.
With inuent COD in the range of 26209 mg/L, COD in the nal
efuent varied in the range of 046.3 mg/L (Fig. 2a). Most of COD
was removed in the double-layer biolter. The average inuent
COD in different months ranged from 44.6 mg/L to 166.5 mg/L, and
the average COD levels in nal efuent were stably below 30 mg/L
(Fig. 3a). It can also be noticed that although inuent COD level was
low in winter, COD in nal efuent was a little higher than that in
summer. In summer and winter, COD removal percentages were in
the ranges of 82.491.4% and 56.979.5%, respectively. The
decrease of COD removal in winter was mainly caused by the
decline of microorganisms activity in cold days with temperature
below 10  C. However, this integrated system always got satisfying
efuent with low COD level despite of the inuent, season and
temperature variation. In the study of Jing et al. (2001) with a
constructed wetland to remove nutrients from polluted river
water, an obvious deterioration in COD removal was noticed in
winter, and at some time COD in the efuent was higher than that
in the inuent due to the decomposition of dead vegetation. In this
integrated system, most of COD was removed in the biolter. When
the vegetation withered in autumn and winter, the dead parts were
cleared in time, and there was no obvious increase of COD level in
the efuent due to the vegetations decomposition.
TN and NH4+-N in the inuent respectively uctuated greatly in
the range of 6.938.3 mg/L and 2.235.8 mg/L in different days
(Fig. 2b and c). It can be seen that NH4+-N was also mostly removed
in the double-layer biolter. Except for the starting-up days,
NH4+-N in the efuent was maintained below 5.0 mg/L. Even in

winter with temperature below 10  C, NH4+-N was almost

completely removed (Fig. 3c). In winter, the temperature in the
biolter was about 67  C higher than that in the outer place, so the
inner temperature was mostly above 10  C. Under such temperature, the nitrication activity in the biolter was still maintained to
some extent. Moreover, in winter the inuent NH4+-N level was
lower than that in other seasons. Consequently the biolter was
run in relative low NH4+-N loading rate, which alleviated the
inuence of temperature on nitrication activity. Except for the
starting-up period, average NH4+-N removal was maintained above
90%. However, the inuence of temperature on TN removal was
obvious. In winter although TN level in the inuent was low, there
was an obvious increase of TN level in the nal efuent, and TN
removal was only in the range of 22.830.0% (Fig. 3b). In summer
with temperature above 23  C, although TN level in the inuent
was higher than that in winter, more TN was removed in the
double-layer biolter, and TN removal was maintained in the range
of 50.059.6%. TN removal was similar to the study of Jenssen et al.
(2010) with biolter and submerged lter bed in treating domestic
wastewater, but NH4+-N removal was much higher and more stable
than the range of 3880% in their study.
As shown in Fig. 2d, it is obvious that phosphorus was mainly
removed in the constructed wetland. TP levels in the inuent,
biolter outlet and nal efuent uctuated in the range of
0.33.8 mg/L, 0.43.2 mg/L and 01.2 mg/L, respectively. It can be
noticed that TP level in the nal efuent increased obviously when
aquatic plants in the constructed wetland began to wither from the
6th month when autumn came (Fig. 3d). In summer, TP in the
efuent stabilized in the range of 0.050.16 mg/L, and overall
phosphorus removal was in the range of 81.895.6%. However,

466

Z. Jing et al. / Ecological Engineering 75 (2015) 462469

when C. alternifolius and Canna faded, TP in the efuent increased

obviously and in some days exceeded 0.5 mg/L. According to the
monthly data in Fig. 3d, in winter this integrated system removed
58.373.6% of phosphorus and efuent TP uctuated in the range
of 0.480.63 mg/L. When spring came again, the aquatic plants
began to sprout and grow with substantial phosphorus uptake, and
efuent TP decreased to around 0.38 mg/L. In constructed wetland,
phosphorus is usually removed by particulate phosphorus
sedimentation, vegetations uptake and lter materials interception (Reddy and Dangelo, 1997). In this integrated system, the
particulate phosphorus was intercepted by the lter material in the
double-layer biolter. In the constructed wetland, phosphorus
removal was mainly accomplished in two ways: the interception
(including the functions of adsorption and precipitation) by the
calcium-rich ceramic granules and the uptake by the aquatic plants
(Abou-Elela and Hellal, 2012; Lu et al., 2009). When aquatic plants
faded, phosphorus uptake decreased accordingly. In winter, the
route of phosphorus removal by plants uptake was totally cut off.
Consequently, phosphorus removal was affected greatly. However,
owing to the high interception abilities of the calcium-rich ceramic
granules, even in winter TP in the nal efuent was mostly below
0.5 mg/L.
3.2. Pollutants removal along the integrated system
Fig. 4 illustrates the main pollutants removal at different
sampling points along the whole treatment process. In different
seasons COD variation tendency along the process was similar.

It can be seen that COD was mainly removed in the trickling upper
layer of the biolter, where there was enough oxygen supplied by
natural ventilation for heterotrophic bacterias biodegradation. In
the lower layer of the biolter, a portion of COD was removed
during denitrication process as carbon source. In the constructed
wetland, some residual COD was further reduced by the lter
materials interception.
In the biolter, the alternation of aerobic and anoxic conditions
was realized in the trickling upper layer and the submerged lower
layer, respectively. However, owing to the short contact time of
NH4+-N with the ceramic granules, NH4+-N could not be fully
nitried in the upper layer, and most of NH4+-N was removed in the
lower lter layer form SP2 to SP3. After that, denitrication
happened in the lower layer from SP3 to the bottom of the biolter
resulting in prominent TN removal. After bioltration, NH4+-N and
TN were further decreased in the constructed wetland. In the
integrated system, NH4+-N and TN were mainly removed in the
double-layer biolter. Although NH4+-N removal was always quite
complete, this system only removed partial TN owing to the
limited carbon source in the inuent. It was reported that TN could
be mostly removed with COD/TN ratio above 6 in biolter
(Jing et al., 2012). In this integrated system, the average COD/TN
ratio in different seasons was in the range of 3.54.6. Consequently,
the limited carbon source was the largest constraint of TN removal.
In the upper layer of the biolter most of COD was consumed, thus
in the lower layer denitrication was mainly accomplished with
the exfoliated biolm as carbon source. In winter, the metabolic
activity of microorganisms decreased greatly, and no much aged

Fig. 4. Pollutants removal variation along the integrated system in different seasons.

Z. Jing et al. / Ecological Engineering 75 (2015) 462469

biolm was exfoliated. Therefore, the denitrication efciency was

refrained obviously owing to low carbon source supply in the lower
layer.
The biolter played the main role in organics and nitrogen
removal, but it did not perform efciently in phosphorus removal.
The lter material in the biolter only removed the particulate
phosphorus in the inuent. Consequently, most of phosphorus
needed to be removed in the constructed wetland. In autumn when
the aquatic plants began to fade, phosphorus removal declined
accordingly. In winter with temperature below 10  C, the plants
withered completely resulting in no phosphorus removal by
plants uptake (Stecher and Weaver, 2003), and phosphorus was
removed by the interception of the ceramic granules. In summer,
the aquatic plants were vigorous, and they could assimilate much
phosphorus in growth.
3.3. Phosphorus removal ability assessment in the constructed
wetland
According to the data in Fig. 4, in winter the average phosphorus
levels in the inuent and efuent of the constructed wetland were
1.07 mg/L and 0.52 mg/L, respectively, and this constructed
wetland gained phosphorus removal rate of 0.33 g/m2 day. This
removal was mainly ascribed to the interception by calcium-rich
ceramic granules. In summer, the average phosphorus levels in the
inuent and efuent of the constructed wetland were 0.95 mg/L
and 0.11 mg/L, respectively, and phosphorus removal rate reached
0.50 g/m2 day. In this period, except the interception by calciumrich granules, much phosphorus was removed by plants uptake.
During static phosphorus removal experiment with the calciumrich ceramic granules in laboratory, when temperature varied in
the range of 1030  C, the phosphorus removal capacity of the
granules kept stably in 3.13.2 mg/g with initial phosphorus
concentration of 1 mg/L, granules dosage of 100 g/L and contact
time of 60 min. At the same dosage and contact time above,
phosphorus removal capacity increased linearly from 1.2 mg/g to
19.5 mg/g with initial phosphorus concentration rising from
0.5 mg/L to 5 mg/L. Consequently, according to the data of
phosphorus removal in winter, phosphorus removal in other
seasons through ceramic granules interception could be obtained,
and the amount of uptake by aquatic plants were also acquired
(Table 2). Then the seasonal removal capacity and percentage
through plants uptake and granules interception were calculated.
In winter, ceramic granules interception accounted for all the
phosphorus removal. In summer plants uptake and ceramic
granules interception respectively contributed 42.2% and 57.8% of
phosphorus removal in the constructed wetland. In spring and
autumn, granules interception contributed 67.4% and 87.7% of
phosphorus removal, respectively.
Plants uptake is vital or sometimes decisive for nutrients
removal in constructed wetland (Xia et al., 2012). In the study of
Korner and Vermaat (1998) with a wetland planted with duckweed
in wastewater treatment, the duckweed contributed up to 52% of
Table 2
Phosphorus removal performance of the constructed wetland.

Inuent
Biolter efuent (mg/L)
Final efuent (mg/L)
Plants uptake (mg/L)
Granules interception (mg/L)
Plants uptake (g)
Granules interception (g)
Percentage of uptake (%)
Percentage of interception (%)

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter

Total

1.55
1.25
0.30
0.31
0.64
114.2
235.7
32.6
67.4

1.13
0.95
0.11
0.35
0.49
259.7
355.3
42.2
57.8

1.86
1.06
0.44
0.08
0.54
27.7
197.8
12.3
87.7

1.64
1.07
0.52
0.00
0.55
0.0
398.8
0.0
100.0

401.6
1187.5
25.3
74.7

467

phosphorus removal by its own growth. Kyambadde et al. (2004)

found that plants uptake accounted for 89% of TP removal in
constructed wetland planted with Cyperus. Phosphorus removal by
the aquatic plants in constructed wetland is quite variable owing to
the variation of inuent phosphorus level, plant species and
climate. Cui et al. (2011) found that the constructed wetland
planted with C. alternifolius gained 1040% higher phosphorus
removal compared with the unplanted unit. In a study with
constructed wetlands planted with four kinds of macrophyte
species, it was found that plants uptake constituted 10.7634.17%
of phosphorus removal (Wu et al., 2011). In this research the
proportion of phosphorus uptake by the aquatic plants was also
variable in different seasons. However, because phosphorus
removal was mainly ascribed to the calcium-rich ceramic
granules interception, this constructed wetland gained high
performance in phosphorus removal even in winter with
temperature below 10  C.
In one years operation, the constructed wetland averagely
contributed 68.9% of overall phosphorus removal, whereas in
summer this proportion was above 80%. This constructed wetland
removed 1589.1 g phosphorus in total, in which granules interception and plants uptake respectively contributed 74.7% and 25.3%. The
overall phosphorus removal rate reached 158.9 g/m2 year, in which
plants uptake accounted for 40.16 g/m2 year. This value by plants
uptake was near the value of 32.55 g/m2 year obtained by Abou-Elela
and Hellal (2012) in a vertical ow constructed wetland planted with
Canna. In their study the constructed wetland showed an average
phosphorus removal percentage of 62% with efuent phosphorus in
the range of 0.42.0 mg/L, but the hydraulic loading rate of
0.044 m3/m2 day was much lower than the value of 0.6 m3/m2 day
in this study. In the study of Konnerup et al. (2009) with a
constructed wetland planted with Canna, TP removal was only
10  5% at loading rate of 0.44 m3/m2 day. Coveney et al. (2002)
enhanced phosphorus removal loading rate from 0.5 to 3 g/m2 year
by process improvement to constructed wetland, and suggested
increasing the TP loading rate to the range of 1015 g/m2 year would
maximize phosphorus removal rates at around 4 g/m2 year. In the
study of Dunne et al. (2012) with a marsh ow-way constructed
wetland, the highest TP removal rate reached 2.2 g/m2 year with
hydraulic loading rate (HLR) in the range of 3249 m/year. In this
study, the HLR of the constructed wetland was several or a dozen
times greater than the above studies, and the phosphorus removal
loading rate was also much higher. All these results indicated that
the constructed wetland lled with a thin layer of the calcium-rich
ceramic granules enhanced phosphorus removal capacity greatly.
3.4. Elements composition changes on the surface of the calcium-rich
granules
After one years operation, some ceramic granules were taken
out from the constructed wetland, and were determined by SEMEDS. The main elements composition on the surface of the original
granules, the inlet and outlet granules of the constructed wetland
are contrasted in Fig. 5. There was an obvious decrease of calcium
content and increase of phosphorus on the surface of the ceramic
granules. Calcium decreased from 23.2% to 5.6% and 12.1% to the
granules in the inlet and outlet positions of the constructed
wetland, respectively. On the surface of the original granules, there
was no phosphorus detected. However, after one years operation,
phosphorus content increased to 1.2% and 7.4% on the surface of
the granules in the inlet and outlet, respectively. There was also
large proportion of carbon content in the granules. Carbon content
increased from 0 to 15.9% and 11.3% on the surface of the granules
at the inlet and outlet, respectively. In the constructed wetland, the
residual organics from the biolter efuent was further removed.

468

Z. Jing et al. / Ecological Engineering 75 (2015) 462469

References

Fig. 5. Elements composition variation on the surface of the calcium-rich ceramic

granules in the constructed wetland.

The organics concentration in the rst half was higher than that in
the second half. Consequently more organics could be adsorbed
onto the granules. This increase of carbon content was also
attributed to carbonate ion exchange with other anions in the
original granules.
Previous studies indicate that phosphorus removal with
mineral by-products or ashes is the adsorption to the surface
metal oxides (Peacock and Rimmer, 2000). On the surface of the
calcium-rich ceramic granules, the increase of phosphorus content
was mainly caused by phosphorus adsorption or precipitation.
However, the obvious decrease of calcium content on the surface of
the granules indicated that much calcium dissolved out, which was
also quite helpful for phosphorus removal (Murphy and Stevens,
2010). At the inlet of the constructed wetland, large amount of
calcium ions dissolved out resulting in the obvious decrease of
metal oxides content on the surface of the ceramic granules.
Consequently, no much phosphorus was adsorbed on the surface.
Phosphorus removal was mainly accomplished via precipitation or
co-sorption of the dissolved calcium and phosphorus ions in the
holes and spaces of the lter material in the constructed wetland
(Wendling et al., 2012).
4. Conclusions
In the integrated system, COD, ammonia and TN removal
mainly happened in the trickling double-layer biolter, whereas
phosphorus was mostly removed in the constructed wetland by
plants uptake and calcium-rich ceramic granules interception. In
winter and summer, the constructed wetland gained phosphorus
removal of 0.33 and 0.50 g/m2 day, respectively. In one years
operation, the granules interception and plants uptake respectively contributed 74.7% and 25.3% of phosphorus removal in the
constructed wetland. After one years operation, the calcium
content on the surface of the calcium-rich granules in the
constructed wetland decreased greatly, whereas phosphorus
content increased obviously.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Technology Project of China
Housing and Urban-Rural Development Ministry, the Project of the
Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher
Education Institutions (PAPD) and China National Undergraduate
Innovation Project (201310298031z).

Abou-Elela, S.I., Hellal, M.S., 2012. Municipal wastewater treatment using vertical
ow constructed wetlands planted with Canna,Phragmites and Cyprus. Ecol. Eng.
47, 209213.
Akratos, C.S., Tsihrintzis, V.A., 2007. Effect of temperature, HRT, vegetation and
porous media on removal efciency of pilot-scale horizontal subsurface ow
constructed wetlands. Ecol. Eng. 29 (2), 173191.
APHA, AWWA, WEF, 1995. Standard Methods for Examination of Water and
Wastewater, nineteenth ed.
Chen, D.J., Lu, J., Yuan, S.F., Jin, S.Q., Shen, Y.N., 2006. Spatial and temporal variations
of water quality in Cao-E River of eastern China. J. Environ. Sci.-China 18 (4),
680688.
Coveney, M., Stites, D., Lowe, E., Battoe, L., Conrow, R., 2002. Nutrient removal from
eutrophic lake water by wetland ltration. Ecol. Eng. 19 (2), 141159.
Cui, L.H., Zhu, X.Z., Ouyang, Y., Chen, Y., Yang, F.L., 2011. Total phosphorus
removal from domestic wastewater with Cyperus Alternifolius in vertical-ow
constructed wetlands at the microcosm level. Int. J. Phytorem. 13 (7),
692701.
Dunne, E.J., Coveney, M.F., Marzolf, E.R., Hoge, V.R., Conrow, R., Naleway, R., Lowe, E.
F., Battoe, L.E., 2012. Efcacy of a large-scale constructed wetland to remove
phosphorus and suspended solids from Lake Apopka, Florida. Ecol. Eng. 42,
90100.
Eding, E.H., Kamstra, A., Verreth, J., Huisman, E.A., Klapwijk, A., 2006. Design and
operation of nitrifying trickling lters in recirculating aquaculture: a review.
Aquacult. Eng. 34 (3), 234260.
Jenssen, P.D., Mhlum, T., Krogstad, T., Vrle, L., 2005. High performance
constructed wetlands for cold climates. J. Environ. Sci. Health 40 (67),
13431353.
Jenssen, P.D., Krogstad, T., Paruch, A.M., Mhlum, T., Adam, K., Arias, C.A., Heistad, A.,
Jonsson, L., Hellstrm, D., Brix, H., 2010. Filter bed systems treating domestic
wastewater in the Nordic countriesperformance and reuse of lter media. Ecol.
Eng. 36 (12), 16511659.
Jing, S.R., Lin, Y.F., Lee, D.Y., Wang, T.W., 2001. Nutrient removal from polluted river
water by using constructed wetlands. Bioresour. Technol. 76 (2), 131135.
Jing, Z.Q., Li, Y.Y., Cao, S.W., Liu, Y.Y., 2012. Performance of double-layer biolter
packed with coal y ash ceramic granules in treating highly polluted river water.
Bioresour. Technol. 120, 212217.
Koiv, M., Liira, M., Mander, U., Motlep, R., Vohla, C., Kirsimae, K., 2010. Phosphorus
removal using Ca-rich hydrated oil shale ash as lter material the effect of
different phosphorus loadings and wastewater compositions. Water Res. 44
(18), 52325239.
Konnerup, D., Koottatep, T., Brix, H., 2009. Treatment of domestic wastewater in
tropical, subsurface ow constructed wetlands planted with Canna and
Heliconia. Ecol. Eng. 35 (2), 248257.
Korner, S., Vermaat, J.E., 1998. The relative importance of Lemna gibba L., bacteria
and algae for the nitrogen and phosphorus removal in duckweed-covered
domestic wastewater. Water Res. 32 (12), 36513661.
Kowalczak, P., Kundzewicz, Z.W., 2011. Water-related conicts in urban areas in
Poland. Hydrol. Sci. J. 56 (4), 588596.
Kyambadde, J., Kansiime, F., Gumaelius, L., Dalhammar, G., 2004. A comparative
study of Cyperus papyrus and Miscanthidium violaceum-based constructed
wetlands for wastewater treatment in a tropical climate. Water Res. 38 (2),
475485.
Lahav, O., Artzi, E., Tarre, S., Green, M., 2001. Ammonium removal using a novel
unsaturated ow biological lter with passive aeration. Water Res. 35 (2),
397404.
Li, X.-N., Song, H.-L., Li, W., Lu, X.-W., Nishimura, O., 2010. An integrated ecological
oating-bed employing plant, freshwater clam and biolm carrier for
purication of eutrophic water. Ecol. Eng. 36 (4), 382390.
Lu, S.G., Bai, S.Q., Zhu, L., Shan, H.D., 2009. Removal mechanism of phosphate from
aqueous solution by y ash. J. Hazard. Mater. 161 (1), 95101.
Murphy, P.N., Stevens, R., 2010. Lime and gypsum as source measures to decrease
phosphorus loss from soils to water. Water Air Soil Pollut. 212 (14), 101111.
Paredes, J., Andreu, J., Solera, A., 2010. A decision support system for water quality
issues in the Manzanares River (Madrid, Spain). Sci. Total Environ. 408 (12),
25762589.
Peacock, S., Rimmer, D.L., 2000. The suitability of an iron oxide-rich gypsum
by-product as a soil amendment. J. Environ. Qual. 29 (6), 19691975.
Prasad, R.M., Mera, G., Morita, K., Mller, M., Kleebe, H.J., Gurlo, A., Fasel, C., Riedel,
R., 2012. Thermal decomposition of carbon-rich polymer-derived silicon
carbonitrides leading to ceramics with high specic surface area and tunable
micro- and mesoporosity. J. Eur. Ceram. Soc. 32 (2), 477484.
Qiu, L., Zhang, S., Wang, G., Du, M., 2010. Performances and nitrication properties of
biological aerated lters with zeolite, ceramic particle and carbonate media.
Bioresour. Technol. 101 (19), 72457251.
Rahman, S., Hossain, F., 2008. Spatial assessment of water quality in peripheral
rivers of Dhaka city for optimal relocation of water intake point. Water Resour.
Manage. 22 (3), 377391.
Rai, U., Tripathi, R., Singh, N., Upadhyay, A., Dwivedi, S., Shukla, M., Mallick, S., Singh,
S., Nautiyal, C., 2013. Constructed wetland as an ecotechnological tool for
pollution treatment for conservation of Ganga river. Bioresour. Technol. 148,
535541.
Reddy, K., Dangelo, E., 1997. Biogeochemical indicators to evaluate pollutant
removal efciency in constructed wetlands. Water Sci. Technol. 35 (5), 110.

Z. Jing et al. / Ecological Engineering 75 (2015) 462469

Sakadevan, K., Bavor, H.J., 1998. Phosphate adsorption characteristics of soils, slags
and zeolite to be used as substrates in constructed wetland systems. Water Res.
32 (2), 393399.
Stecher, M., Weaver, R., 2003. Effects of umbrella palms and wastewater depth on
wastewater treatment in a subsurface ow constructed wetland. Environ.
Technol. 24 (4), 471478.
Toscano, A., Langergraber, G., Consoli, S., Cirelli, G.L., 2009. Modelling pollutant
removal in a pilot-scale two-stage subsurface ow constructed wetlands.
Ecol. Eng. 35 (2), 281289.
van den Akkera, B., Holmes, M., Cromar, N., Falloweld, H., 2008. Application of high
rate nitrifying trickling lters for potable water treatment. Water Res. 42 (17),
45144524.

469

Wendling, L.A., Douglas, G.B., Coleman, S., Yuan, Z., 2012. Nutrient and dissolved
organic carbon removal from water using mining and metallurgical byproducts. Water Res. 46 (8), 27052717.
Wu, H., Zhang, J., Li, P., Zhang, J., Xie, H., Zhang, B., 2011. Nutrient removal in
constructed microcosm wetlands for treating polluted river water in northern
China. Ecol. Eng. 37 (4), 560568.
Xia, Y., Konig, T., Zhang, Q., Gao, Y.S., 2012. Nitrogen and phosphorus removal of
locally adapted plant species used in constructed wetlands in China. Water Sci.
Technol. 66 (4), 695703.
Xu, Z.X., Wang, W.G., Li, H.Z., Jin, W., Ding, Y.F., 2011. Organic pollutants removal of
seriously polluted urban water body by coagulationocculation process in
Shanghai, China. Fresenius Environ. Bull. 20 (10), 25212525.