Environmental Technology & Innovation 14 (2019) 100362

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Environmental Technology & Innovation

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/eti

Enhanced nitrogen removal by the integrated constructed

wetlands with artificial aeration
∗
Pan Jizheng a , , Zhang Houhu b , Lu Xuejun c , Li Yong d , Zhao Min a , Xu Hongling a
a
State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Nanjing 210008, PR China
b
Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of PR
China, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210042, PR China
c
Lianyungang Environmental Monitoring Station, Lianyungang, Jiangsu, 310012, PR China
d
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215011,
PR China

highlights

• A novel CWs include BCO, AVFCWs and HFCWs was applied to enhance the removal of TN.
• A total of 64.97% removal of TN was achieved in the novel CW systems.
• The system is a more efficient and practical way for some rural wastewater.

article info a b s t r a c t

Article history: The removal of organic pollutants, ammonia, and phosphorus from seriously polluted
Received 29 June 2018 river water has been extensively explored using various traditional integrated con-
Received in revised form 27 February 2019 structed wetland systems. However, the removal efficiency of nitrogen was extremely
Accepted 1 April 2019
low due to the limited oxygen concentration of these traditional systems. Herein, a
Available online 2 April 2019
novel pilot-scale integrated constructed wetland system (CWs), which consisted mainly
Keywords: of a biotic contacting oxidization pre-treatment (BCO), an artificial aeration vertical sub-
Nitrogen removal mechanism surface flow CWs, and a horizontal subsurface flow CWs were applied to enhance the
Artificial aeration removal of total nitrogen (TN) under high hydraulic loading through artificial aeration.
Integrated constructed wetlands Results showed that, with the application of the novel CW systems, a total of 64.97%
Enhanced nitrogen removal removal of TN was achieved with the average inflow of 11.39 mg/L and hydraulic load
of 1.67 m3 ·m−2 ·d−1 . Further analysis showed that the contributions of BCO, AVFCWs
and HF CWs to TN removal were 13.86%, 15.97% and 35.36%, respectively. Besides
the TN removal, the CW systems can also obtained about 75% of ammonia removal,
within which artificial aeration vertical subsurface flow CWs unit occupied about 60% of
contribution. Flowing by the application of this systems, the concentrations of ammonia
and nitrate in the outflow decreased to 2.66 and 2.01 mg/L, respectively. The study
indicated that the integrated constructed wetland system applied can be an efficiently
potential technique for the removal of COD, NH4 -N and TP from some rural wastewater.
© 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V.

1. Introduction

With the development of pollutant abatement technology, the application of constructed wetlands (CWs) technique
has been widely used for the wastewater treatment. After the first establishment in UK Yorkshire Ear, some large-scale

∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jzhpan@niglas.ac.cn (P. Jizheng).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eti.2019.100362
2352-1864/© 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V.
2 P. Jizheng, Z. Houhu, L. Xuejun et al. / Environmental Technology & Innovation 14 (2019) 100362

Table 1
Parameters of the artificial aeration integrated constructed wetlands.
No. Process unit Area/m2 Effective height/m Hydraulic loading m3 /m2 ·d Hydraulic residence time/d
1 BCO 2.00 1.60 2.00∼6.00 0.80∼0.27
2 AVFCW 6.00 1.60 0.67∼2.00 2.39∼0.8
3 HFCW 4.50 1.60 1.125∼3.375 1.42∼0.47

centralized CWs treatment systems have been applied in many countries, especially in the developing countries, which
are now regarded as a successful approach (Brisson and Chazarenc, 2009). Recently, many studies have been reported
on the design, construction, and performance of CWs in treating various wastewater, including storm water, industrial
wastewater, agricultural runoff, acid mine drainage, and landfill leachate (Tao and Wang, 2009).
Although the wide application, this system also shows an obvious drawback of the low removal efficiency of nitrogen
due to the limited concentration of dissolved oxygen (DO) it suffered. As known, the release of nitrate into the environment
can cause some considerable environment effects, and the removal of total nitrogen (TN) usually contains two process,
i.e., nitrification and denitrification (Hill and Sobsey, 2001; Hunt and Poach, 2001). Nitrite and nitrate produced from
nitrification is required to be reduced to gaseous nitrogen by denitrifiers (Yang et al., 2003). Many studies have been
reported aiming to improve the nitrate removal from water and wastewater by various technologies (Green and Shelef,
1994; Kapoor and Viraraghavan, 1997). For example, Felde and Kunst (1997) studied the factors influencing the removal
of CODCr and N, and investigated the conversion mechanism of nitrogen in both the vertical flow wetland and no-plant
soil column in the laboratory (Felde and Kunst, 1997). Green and co-workers (Green and Shelef, 1994) enhanced system’s
nitration ability by adding a gas pipeline in the system which resulted in a slow inflow and fast outflow. In addition,
some design advances have also been proposed to improve oxygen availability by artificial aeration and, at the same
time, increase the pollutant removal efficiency (Maltais et al., 2009).
Denitrification is generally considered to be the major process for NO−
3 removal in CWs, which is highly influenced by
the concentration of DO (Cronk and Fennessy, 2001). Due to the existence of free water layer, high oxygen conversion
capability makes it difficult to happen for the denitrification reaction, and resultantly a relatively low removal rate of
TN in the vertical flow CWs. Schönerklee et al. (1997) used a 600 m2 vertical flow wetland as the tertiary treatment
of wastewater in Austria, and they found that the removal efficiency of TN was only about 5%∼10%. Nevertheless, two
vertical flow wetlands: one with a low water level and no saturated water layer, and the other with high water level and
saturated water layer, can be sequentially connected. Therefore, various types of CWs may be combined to make full use
of the specific advantages of each system.
Therefore, enough oxygen, a small amount of suspended solids, as well as the accumulation of organic matters are
of essence to the improvement of purification ability of wetland system. In this study, we develop a ‘‘biotic contacting
oxidization pre-treatment (BCO) + artificial aeration vertical subsurface flow CWs (AVFCWs) + horizontal subsurface flow
CWs (HFCWs)’’ process. The BCO process was applied to reduce the SS concentration of inflow and to support the system
for pre-oxidation, and the aims of AVFCWs and HFCWs were the nitrification and denitrification, respectively. Results
obtained herein can provide a deeper insight into the nitrogen transformation removal behavior and removal mechanism
in related constructed wetlands.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. AAICW schematic flow and parameters

The schematic of the artificial aeration integrated constructed wetlands (AAICW) is depicted in Fig. 1a. The wastewater
was firstly treated in the biotic contacting oxidization pre-treatment, followed by the artificial aeration vertical subsurface
flow CWs. Two groups of CWs, which were aeration and non-aeration, respectively, were applied in this study (Fig. 1b).
To investigate the N conversion processes in the AVFCWs, the samples were collected at various heights (20 cm, 40 cm,
60 cm, 80 cm, 100 cm and 120 cm) of the columns during the whole experiment period. In addition, to compare the
effects of aeration and synergistic on nitrogen conversion, a small CWs systems were designed according to the principle
of the integrated CWs. The integrated CWs were operated from October 2006 to April 2008, with the hydraulic loading
parameters list in Table 1.

2.2. Study site description and background information

During December 2006 to April 2008, water quality, water temperature and environmental temperature were observed
continuously in experiment plot. The water and environmental temperature are shown in Fig. 2, and the water quality
is shown in Table 2. The annual average water temperature of experiment plot is 18.61 ◦ C, with the lowest water
temperature of about 5 ◦ C and the highest water temperature of about 27 ◦ C. The annual average environmental
 P. Jizheng, Z. Houhu, L. Xuejun et al. / Environmental Technology & Innovation 14 (2019) 100362 3

Fig. 1. The flow process chart of the artificial aeration integrated constructed wetlands applied in this study.

Fig. 2. The changes of water and environment temperatures during the experiment period.

Table 2
Properties of the inflow water.
Parameters ρ /(mg·L−1 ) Parameters ρ /(mg·L−1 )
CODcr 61.1 ± 24.0 NH4 –N 5.95 ± 1.52
BOD5 25.2 ± 10.7 NO3 –N 0.08 ± 0.07
TP 0.74 ± 0.23 NO2 –N 0.11 ± 0.13
PO34− –P 0.46 ± 0.17 SS 17.32 ± 10.45
TN 7.85 ± 2.07

temperature (18.93 ◦ C) was similar with the water temperature, but with a wider range (lowest of 1 ◦ C and highest
of 30 ◦ C).

2.3. Water quality analysis method

The water samples were analyzed for pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), suspended solid (SS), chemical oxygen demand (COD),
biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5 ), ammonium nitrogen (NH4 –N), nitrate nitrogen (NO3 –N), total nitrogen (TN) and total
phosphorus (TP). Among them, DO, pH and SS were measured in the field by a DREL2800 portable water analyser (HACH,
USA). BOD5 was measured by the BOD TrakII system (HACH, USA). NH4 -N, NO3 –N TN, COD, and TP were analyzed following
the standard methods (APHA, 1998).
Statistical analyses were performed using the Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) package to evaluate if
statistically significant differences existed among two experimental configurations for various water quality parameters.
4 P. Jizheng, Z. Houhu, L. Xuejun et al. / Environmental Technology & Innovation 14 (2019) 100362

Fig. 3. The changes of DO in different states.

For this study, the relationship between nitrogen removal and other measured parameters was evaluated using linear
regression analyses. Results that had a p < 0.05 can be considered significant statistically.

3. Results

3.1. Effects of O2 supply in vertical artificial aeration CWS

Fig. 3a shows the variations of DO concentration under different conditions. The vegetated CWs can obtain a 22.22%
more DO averagely than CWs without vegetation through photosynthesis in the water (p < 0.01). The DO concentration
in the CWs with the artificial aeration was 3 times (p < 0.01) higher than that in the vegetated CWS . Due to the existence
of vegetation, DO concentration in the CWs with the artificial aeration was 18.05% higher than that without vegetation
(p < 0.01).
As for the exhaustion of the DO concentration, the consumption of DO fitted the first-order reduction curve in both
the static and dynamic CWs (R2 > 0.99) (Fig. 3b). The static CWs exhibited a 21.92% faster decrease in DO concentrations
than that of the dynamic CWs.

3.2. Removal of pollutants in vertical artificial aeration CWS

As shown in Fig. 4a, the COD removal rate in the vegetated CWS exhibited a two-fold rate higher than that in CWs
without vegetation (p < 0.01). The removal rate of COD in the CWs with the artificial aeration was enhanced substantially
2.57 times than that in the vegetated CWS (p < 0.01). However, due to the existence of vegetation, the removal rate of
COD in the CWs with the artificial aeration was only 11.14% higher than that without vegetation (P < 0.01).
The DO supply through the artificial aeration in CWs played a vital role for the nitrification than that for the COD
removal (Fig. 4.b). In vertical artificial aeration CWs, the average removal efficiency of NH4 –N was 35.56% higher than
that of COD. The removal rate of NH4 –N in the vegetated CWs was about 3.5 times higher than CWs without vegetation
(p < 0.01). More importantly, the average removal efficiency of NH4 –N in vertical artificial aeration CWs was 8.34 times
higher than that in the vegetated CWS (p < 0.01). As for the COD removal, the removal rate in the CWs with the artificial
aeration was about 6.5% higher than that without vegetation (p < 0.01). The results indicated that the presence of aeration
has a significant effect on the process of nitrification.
As for the NO3 –N removal, it was shown that the concentration of NO3 –N in the CWs with the artificial aeration was
enhanced by about 6 times than that in the vegetated CWS (p < 0.01) (Fig. 4.c), indicating the accumulation of NO3 –N
in artificial aeration CWs. The vegetated CWs can obtain an average of 30.59% production of NO3 –N more than CWs as
control without vegetation (p < 0.01). As for the TP concentrations, aerated CWs can obtain a high TP removal (30%)
efficiency, which were 5–6 times higher than those without aeration (Fig. 4d).

3.3. Nitrogen conversion and other pollutants removal in the integrated CWs

To obtain in more detail the TN removal mechanism, the nitrogen conversion among TN, NH4 –N and NO3 –N are shown
in Fig. 5. The removal efficiency of NH4 –N was up to 75% with an average value of 61.34% (p < 0.05) (Fig. 5a). Among
these process units, nearly 60% NH4 –N was nitrified through AVFCWs within the Integrated CWs, whereas BCO and HFCWs
contributed only 23% and 16%, respectively.
 P. Jizheng, Z. Houhu, L. Xuejun et al. / Environmental Technology & Innovation 14 (2019) 100362 5

Fig. 4. The removal rates of pollutants in vertical artificial aeration CWs.

The concentrations of NO3 –N were related with the nitrification in integrated CWs. As shown in Fig. 5b, the NO3 –N
concentration in BCO was 4.26 times higher than the inflow (p < 0.05, Fig. 5b), indicating the obvious accumulation
of NO3 -N. However, in process of AVFCWs and HFCWs, the NO3 –N concentration descended 58.96% averagely compared
with BCO, which indicated that nearly 40% NO3 –N was denitrified through HFCWs within the Integrated CWs.
It should be noted that most of the nitrogen was converted from NH4 –N to NO3 –N in integrated CWs. In this case,
the removal efficiency of TN can indicate the actual removal of nitrogen (Fig. 5c). The removal efficiency of TN was
approximate 64.97% in integrated CWs (p < 0.05). Among these process units, nearly 80% TN was removed through
aeration and anoxic within the Integrated CWs, and HFCWs contributed the remaining 54% of TN (p < 0.05).
Similar with the variations of nitrification process, the removal of COD and SS were also attributed to the aeration
(Fig. 5d, f). In integrated CWs, both the COD and SS were characterized with a high removal efficiency, with the average
removal efficiencies of 67.38% and 88.76% (p < 0.05), respectively. Among these process units, nearly 52.38% of COD and
61.81% of SS were removed through BCO within the Integrated CWs. AVFCWs contributed 32.9% of COD and 24.23% of SS,
and HFCWs only contributed 14.66% of COD and 13.9% of SS, respectively. Unlike nitrification process, the removal rates
of TP were approximately 40% in integrated CWs (Fig. 5.e). Among these process units, nearly 62.3% of TP was removed
through AVFCWs within the Integrated CWs. BCO contributed 38.7% of TP, while there was not any effect of HFCWs on
the TP removal.

4. Discussion

4.1. Role of artificial aeration

After the application of the combined CW system by artificial aeration in this study, the removal efficiencies of
pollutants were substantially improved. Ding et al. (2014) explored the simultaneous removal of organics and nitrogen by
four lab-scale vertical subsurface flow constructed wetlands, and an enhanced nitrification and biodegradation of organics
6 P. Jizheng, Z. Houhu, L. Xuejun et al. / Environmental Technology & Innovation 14 (2019) 100362

Fig. 5. The removal rates of pollutants in the integrated CWs.

were obtained. Fan et al. (2013) also reported that front and rear aeration can significantly enhance the removal of organics
and nitrogen when compared with the non-aeration counterparts.
The changing trends of pollutants have been reported to be different from that of DO values. For example, the
nitrification and organics degradation were highly dependent on the provision of oxygen. In the present study, the DO
values were enhanced about 5 times (p < 0.01) with the artificial aeration (Fig. 3). And the total average removal rate
of COD, NH4 –N and TP were 60.05%, 90.4%, 40.25%, respectively, which was significantly positively correlated with the
DO concentration (Fig. 4). In addition, the accumulation of NO3 –N in aerated and planted CWs were also observed in this
 P. Jizheng, Z. Houhu, L. Xuejun et al. / Environmental Technology & Innovation 14 (2019) 100362
Table 3
Comparison of effluent efficiency by AAICW with other document data.
Influent Removal rates (%)
CW types Volume (l) HRT (day) Hydraulic load
COD (mg/L) NH4 –N (mg/L) TN (mg/L) COD NH4 –N TN Reference
VF1 100 cm × 50 cm × 40 cm 11 10 l/d 167 ± 19l 122 ± 27 – 27.3 62.3 – Yalcuk and
(22–84d) Ugurlu
257 ± 17
(85–123d)
SCW 80 m × 4 m × 1.5 m 0.16∼1.84 0.17∼2.39 m3 /(m2 d−1 ) 9. 0955 3. 3580 8. 987 38.73 87. 82 63.60 Wang et al.
FWS – 66 61.4
ANOVA 56 × 46 × 38 cm 7 10 l/(m2 d−1 ) 130±52 26.5±9.8 44.9±14.3 60 70 55 Qiu et al.
HF CWs 1.2 m × 0.5 m × 0.85 5 – 26.0∼36.1 0.06∼0.15 0.3∼0.67 63.2 21.1 39.4 Zhang et al.
SSFCW High: 0.65 m, 20 – 1145 177 209 80.5 9.67 16 Lee et al.
upside: 10.3 m × 4.2 m
Bottom: 5 m × 2.6 m
AAICW 67.38 75 64.97 This study

7
8 P. Jizheng, Z. Houhu, L. Xuejun et al. / Environmental Technology & Innovation 14 (2019) 100362

study, which proved the partial inhabitation of denitrification. Some more methods should thus be introduced to elevate
the denitrification, though the aerated and planted CWs exhibited a high efficiency in nitrification.

4.2. Treatment performance of the integrated CWs

As a limiting step of nitrogen removal, denitrification is usually dependent on the variation of DO which makes
artificially Integrated CWs higher nitrogen removal rates than aerated CWs (Sindilariu et al., 2008). Although effective
NH4 –N removal in aerated CWs was previously reported by other researchers, some other studies also revealed a poor
nitrate removal performance or an increase in nitrate concentration in the effluent in the CWs systems (Yang et al., 2008).
The integrated CWs was designed by combining of the oxidization pre-treatment, aerated CWs and horizontal flow CWs,
which can devote to the removal of organic matters, nitrogen (including nitrate nitrogen), and phosphorus.
This study found that the average removal efficiencies of COD, SS, and TN were 67.38%, 88.76%, and 64.97%, respectively
(Fig. 5). In addition, the NO3 –N concentration descended 61.21% among the nitrogen removal, among them nearly 40%
NO3 –N was denitrified through HFCWs. Due to the nitrification process in the BCO and AVFCWs, the increase of NO3 –N
concentration was accordance with the drop of NH4 concentration. Then the NO3 –N was removed in the HFCWs via
anaerobic microbial denitrification. This indicated that nitrification and denitrification were two operationally separate
processes which require aerobic and anoxic conditions respectively, and the rate of denitrification significantly determined
the removal rate of TN as well (Vymazal, 2007). More importantly, the integrated CWs also improved the removal
efficiency of COD, SS and TP through biomass accumulation, plant uptake, and pack adsorption.

4.3. Comparison with other artificial wetlands

The results of this study showed that, compared with natural CWs, the Integrated CWs was more efficient in terms of
the COD and nitrogen removal (Table 3). Indeed, the removal rate of COD in AAICW was more than 2.47 times greater
than that of VF1 (Yalcuk and Ugurlu, 2009), 1.12 times greater than that of ANOVA (Qiu et al., 2011). As the averaged
COD concentrations of influent in SSFCW was as high as 1160 mg/L, but that in the AAICW was only 61.1 mg/L, which
resulted in a higher COD removal efficiency in AAICW (Lee et al., 2004). In addition, due to the nitrification process in
the BCO and AVFCWs, and denitrification process in HFCWs, the removal rate of both TN and NH4 –N in AAICW were
generally higher than that in CWs, As the AAICW is an integrated CWs that obtained a relatively high nitrification and
denitrification efficiency, the proposed procedure is thus considered to be an attractive method for pollutants removal
from wastewater.

5. Conclusion

Significant reductions in organic matters, nitrogen and phosphorus were observed in the AAICW system. The removal
rate of TN fluctuated by a variation of 40∼75%, the averaged removal efficiency of NH4 –N was up to 61.34% (P < 0.05). In
addition, the averaged removal efficiency of COD and SS was 67.38% and 88.76% (p < 0.05), respectively. And nearly 85.28%
of COD and 86.04% of SS can also be removed through BCO and AVFCWs within the Integrated CWs. Future Integrated
CWs need to take account of the removal mechanisms such as microbial activity and physical processes, to provide more
efficient wetland for the treatment of domestic wastewater. Also, to obtain in more detail the removal mechanism of
rural wastewater within these Integrated CWs, some dye tracing studies should be applied to monitor the transformation
behavior. Overall, the Integrated CWs should be a more efficient and practical technique for the domestic wastewater
treatment.

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41001324) and the Collaborative
Innovation Center of Technology and Material of Water Treatment.

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