Ecological Engineering 61 (2013) 460–468

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

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

Municipal wastewater treatment in horizontal and vertical flows

constructed wetlands
Sohair I. Abou-Elela a,∗ , G. Golinielli b , Enas M. Abou-Taleb a , Mohamed S. Hellal a
a
National Research Center, Water Pollution Research Department, P. Box 12622, Dokki, Gizza, Egypt
b
University Consortium for Industrial & Managerial Economics (CUIEM), Italy

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Two large-scale subsurface constructed wetland pilot plants were designed, implemented and operated
Received 2 June 2013 for almost three years for the treatment of a real municipal wastewater. One unit was running in a
Received in revised form horizontal flow (HFCW) with a surface area of 654.5 m2 , while the other one was a sub-tidal vertical flow
30 September 2013
(VFCW) with 457.6 m2 surface area. The two wetland units were operated at a hydraulic load of 20 m3 /day
Accepted 12 October 2013
for each unit and at temperature ranged from 15 to 30 ◦ C. The organic loading rate was 2.02 kg BOD/day.
Available online 9 November 2013
The two pilot units were planted with three kinds of plants namely; Canna, Phragmites and Cyperus.
Monitoring and evaluation of the performance of the two pilot units were carried out through regular
Keywords:
Constructed wetlands
physico-chemical as well as biological analysis of the inlet and outlet wastewater. In addition, nutrient
Horizontal flow uptake in the plants was also measured. The results indicated significant removals of different pollutants
Vertical flow in both HFCW and VFCW in terms of COD, BOD and TSS. The average removal efficiencies of COD, BOD
Wastewater treatment and TSS in HFCW were 91.5%, 92.8% and 92.3%, while it reached 92.9%, 93.6% and 94% in VFCW. However,
Canna VFCW proved to be more efficient than HFCW not only in COD, BOD removals but also for nitrification
Cyperus because of the tidal vertical flow, which allows the penetration of more oxygen, beside its small size and
Phragmites long detention time. The removal rate of ammonia due to nitrification reached 62.3% in VFCW, while in
HFCW it reached 57.1%. In addition, the results indicated that most of the plants survived for almost 12
months and their growth depend on the type of constructed wetlands (CW) used. In conclusion VFCW
proved to be more effective for wastewater treatment than HFCW due to its smaller size, high quality
effluent and better nitrification.
© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Conventional wastewater treatment plants involve large capi-
tal investments and operating costs. These systems are not suitable
solutions for rural communities and villages. Constructed wetlands
(CWs) proved to be a good alternative for such wastewater treat-
ment. They offer low operation and maintenance costs since no
mechanical components or external energy supply is required. The
estimated cost for 1 m3 of domestic wastewater treatment via CWs
ranged between $186 and $357 compared with conventional treat-
ment processes ($ 571–715) (Rousseau et al., 2004). This cost is
variable according to land price. Moreover, CWs are simple to oper-
ate, harness robust natural treatment processes, as well as they
provide esthetic value (Tanner et al., 2012). Also, they produce ben-
eficial biomass through the different kinds of plants grown on it and
help support wildlife habitat (Wetzet, 2001). However, one of the
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +20 233367319; fax: +20 233367319.
E-mail address: Sohairela@gmail.com (S.I. Abou-Elela).
limitations for CWs is the requirement of large land areas to achieve
proper pollutant removal due to low hydraulic loading rate (HLR).
It is necessary then to find the optimal CWs design characteristics
in order to maximize their removal efficiency and to keep the area
to a minimum. The main parameters affect the removal efficiency
of CWs are the hydraulic residence time and temperature (Kuschk
et al., 2003).
Treatment of sewage using CWs is achieved by passing wastew-
ater through shallow gravel-filled beds planted with emergent
macrophytes. With proper design and construction such sys-
tems are able to achieve secondary treatment of septic tank
effluents with average concentrations of total suspended solids
(TSS) < 30 g m−3 and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) < 20 g m−3 .
They also commonly achieve about 2 log10 reduction in fecal bac-
terial indicator concentrations and 30–50% reduction in nitrogen
(Davison et al., 2005; Wallace and Knight, 2006). The use of CWs
with both horizontal and vertical flow is increasing around the
world for domestic wastewater treatment (Liu et al., 2005). The
horizontal flow constructed wetland (HFCW) can provide a reli-
able secondary level of treatment with regard to BOD and TSS but

0925-8574/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2013.10.010
 S.I. Abou-Elela et al. / Ecological Engineering 61 (2013) 460–468
frequently are less effective for nitrogen removal; unless a longer
hydraulic retention time and enough oxygenation are provided (Liu
et al., 2005). On the other hand, vertical flow constructed wetlands
(VFCW) are very effective not only for the removal of BOD and TSS
but also for nitrification even at a higher loading rate (Prochaska
et al., 2007). Therefore, VFCWs are becoming more popular (Molle
et al., 2006) and currently they are subject to intensive research
in order to optimize their basic design parameters (Brix and Arias,
2005). Moreover, wetland plants are an integral part of the con-
structed wetland treatment system. They play important roles in
CWs for their capability of degrading and removing nutrients and
other pollutants.
A wide range of pollutants such as BOD, COD, TSS, total keljdahl
nitrogen (TKN), total phosphorus (TP), total coliforms and metals
can be removed from wastewater with CWs via microbial degra-
dation, plant uptake, substrate adsorption, filtration by the packed
media, and biological predation (Saeed and Sun, 2011). Many con-
structed wetlands show high removal efficiencies >80% for BOD
and TSS (Newman et al., 2000; Vymazal, 2002; Wang et al., 2005).
Ye and Li (2009) studied the effect of using three different plant
species in two small scale HFCW and VFCW for pollutants removal.
They obtained high removal of pollutant except for TSS, NO3 and
TKN. They recommended the application of wetlands treatment in
developing countries.
In Egypt, there are no research studies on CWs in field scale. In
this study, two large scale pilot plants subsurface wetlands con-
figurations namely; horizontal flow constructed wetlands (HFCW)
and vertical flow constructed wetlands (VFCW), planted with three
different plant species, were used for the treatment of a real munic-
ipal wastewater. The main objective of this study is to evaluate
and compare the efficiency of the two pilot plants for pollu-
tants removal and nitrification. Furthermore, to select the most
appropriate wetland configuration that can be used as afford-
able ecotechnology based treatment system suitable for on-site
and decentralized domestic wastewaters in rural communities and
small villages.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Description of the treatment units
The two pilot plant units were designed, built and put into
operation within the vicinity of a wastewater treatment plant,
North Giza governorate, Egypt. The pilots were operated for three
years and still running. They were fed with settled real wastewater
from the existing wastewater treatment plant in the field using a
submersible pump and through a PVC pipe. The two pilot plants
consist of two basins namely; horizontal flow constructed wet-
land (HFCW) and vertical flow constructed wetland (VFCW). The
HFCW has a surface area of 654.5 m2 (37.87 m length and 17.3 m
width) with a depth of 0.85 m and 0.7% slope along the basin. It
was filled with 20 mm diameter gravel in the entire basin except
1 m from the beginning and the end of the basin was filled with
40–80 mm gravel to prevent clogging. The inlet wastewater was
fed to the HFCW through a PVC pipe with 10 holes within the
beginning of the basin. The VFCW was 21.95 m long and 20.85 m
wide and the influent wastewater were distributed through a
PVC network (Abou-Elela and Hellal, 2012). The bottom of both
basins was covered with PVC liner to prevent the seepage to the
ground water. The two pilot units were run at the same operat-
ing conditions and the same organic and hydraulic loading rates
Table 1.
The flow rate and the run off of the pumps were controlled
using SCADA software. All the main climatic parameters affecting
461
Table 1
Operating conditions of the two pilot plant units.
Operating parameters Unit HFCW VFCW
Temperature C◦
15–37 15–37
Surface area m2 654.5 457.65
Depth cm 85 85
Gravel diameters mm 40–80 10–20
Flow rate m3 /day 20 20
Detention time days 11 7.7
Organic loading rate kg BOD/m3 /day 2.02 2.02
the CW hydro-balance such as temperature, wind speed and direc-
tion, humidity and atmospheric pressure were also monitored on a
daily basis and recorded by Solar Radiation Sensor Model DW-6450.
Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the two wetlands units.
2.2. Plantation
Young plants of Canna, Phragmites australis were planted at the
beginning of winter of the year 2009, while Cyperus papyrus was
planted in October 2010 in both basins. The VFCW bed was divided
into four sections; only three sections were planted with the three
kinds of plants, while the fourth section was kept empty for future
plant investigation. HFCW was divided into three horizontal sec-
tions along the length of the bed. The plants were fixed in each
bed at a density of the four rhizomes per square meter. Harvest-
ing was done three times during the study period (36 months),
and the plants growth after harvesting was recorded. At each time
of harvesting, plants were cropped approximately 10 cm from the
gravel surface. All harvested plants were weighed on site. The ratio
wet:dry weight was used to estimate the biomass. The harvested
biomass were collected and weighted and the water content was
calculated as well as the concentration of nutrients. One day prior
to harvesting, representative samples in one square meter were
analyzed for dry weight and nutrient contents in each plant.
2.3. Sampling
Wastewater samples were collected on a weekly basis from the
inlet and outlet of the bed. In addition, different parts of the plants
were collected on a monthly basis for analysis. The samples were
collected and analyzed for the duration of almost three years and
still running.
2.4. Physico-chemical and biological analysis
Physico-chemical and biological analysis were carried out
for raw and treated wastewater. The physico-chemical analy-
sis covered: pH, chemical oxygen demand (COD) (total COD
and soluble COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), total sus-
pended solids (TSS), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) (in water
and plants), ammonia-nitrogen (N-NH4 ), nitrite-nitrogen (NO2 − ),
Nitrate-nitrogen (NO3 − ), total phosphate (T.P.) (in water and
plants), total suspended solids (TSS) and heavy metals (mercury,
lead, copper, cadmium, and chromium). The biological parameters
covered total coliform and fecal coliform. The pH value was mea-
sured using Genway pH meter 3510, while COD, NO2 − , NO3 − , and
T.P. were measured by spectrophotometer, Lovibond SpectroDi-
rect 712005. Analysis of N-NH4 and TKN were carried out using
Gerhardt Digestion and Distillation apparatus, Vapodest 10sn.
Analysis of heavy metals was carried out using Atomic Absorption
Spectrometer, Spectra AA 220. All the analysis, unless otherwise
specified, were carried out according to Standard Methods for the
Examination of Water and Wastewater (APHA, 1998).
462 S.I. Abou-Elela et al. / Ecological Engineering 61 (2013) 460–468
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of wetland treatment systems.
2.5. Statistical analysis
Statistical analysis of the collected data was carried out using
Microsoft Excel 2010 version. The percentage removal was calcu-
lated according to the following equation
(Ci × Qi ) − (Ce × Qe )
%R = × 100
Ci × Qi
where Ci is the influent concentration in kg/m3 ; Ce the effluent con-
centration in kg/m3 ; Qi the inflow in m3 /day; and Qe is the outflow
in m3 /day.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Characterization of influent wastewater
The average characteristics of influent wastewater to the wet-
land are shown in Table 2. The results indicated that the organic
loading rate varied during the period of the study as the COD and
BOD concentrations varied in the influent wastewater. The heavy
metals concentrations such as mercury, lead, copper, cadmium, and
chromium were measured four times during the study period and
their concentrations did not exceed 0.001 mg/l for each individual
metal.
3.2. Reduction of COD and BOD
The COD and BOD concentrations in HFCW and VFCW efflu-
ents are shown in Fig. 2. The results show that both pilot units
are very efficient in the removal of pollutants in terms of COD
and BOD. Although the surface organic loading rate for HFCW was
7.15 g COD/m2 /day and for VFCW was 10.23 g COD/m2 /day, bet-
ter results achieved in VFCW. The average percentage removal rate
of COD and BOD in HFCW reached 91.5% and 92.8% with average
residual values of 29.25 mg/l and 11.94 mg/l, respectively, while
it reached 92.9% and 93.6% in VFCW with average residual values
of 29 mg/l and 11.24 mg/l, respectively. The removal of COD and
BOD depends on the combination between physical and microbial
mechanisms. Because of the physical filtration mechanism and low
porosity of the gravel media, the organic solids could be filtered
and trapped in the bed of CWs for a long time, thereby allow-
ing for better biodegradation of organic solids. The high removal
rates for COD and BOD are caused by sedimentation of suspended
solids and by rapid decomposition processes in the water and upper
soil layers (Zhang et al., 2009). Organic matter is consumed and
reduced by bacteria and other microbes both aerobically and anaer-
obically (U.S. EPA, 1993). The removal efficiencies observed in both
types of wetlands are better than that recorded in other studies
on CWs (Vymazal, 2002, 2005; Klomjek and Nitisoravut, 2005).
On the other hand, the wetlands planted with three species were
more effective with a significant difference in comparison to those
planted with only one species. These results coincide with those
found by Karathanasis et al. (2003) who assessed HFCWs planted
with a variety of species and HFCWs planted with only one species.
Most likely, the presence of several species provides a more effec-
tive distribution of the roots and a more propitious habitat, which
encourages the development of a great diversity of microbial com-
munities. Furthermore, the diversity of roots delays the wastewater
passage through the system which in turn increases the retention
time and as a consequence, the removal efficiencies.
3.3. Reduction of TSS
The results depicted in Fig. 3 show that suspended solids
removal rates are effective in both HFCW and VFCW. The aver-
age removal rate in the HFCW was 92.3%, while in VFCW was 94%.
The results also showed that there is a complete removal of TSS
 S.I. Abou-Elela et al. / Ecological Engineering 61 (2013) 460–468 463

Table 2
Characterization of influent wastewater.a

Parameters Unit Minimum Maximum Average

pH-value – 6.5 7.9 7.2 ± 0.3

Total suspended solids mg/l 34.8 193 98.6 ± 40.9
Total dissolved solids mg/l 335 876 578 ± 129.7
Chemical oxygen demand mg O2 /l 125 480 246.2 ± 78.4
Soluble chemical oxygen demand mg O2 /l 60 170 116.8 ± 40.3
Biological oxygen demand mg O2 /l 59 175 121.7 ± 45.2
Total Kjeldahal nitrogen mg N/l 18.6 66 32.8 ± 12.2
Ammonia mg N/l 11 23 17.2 ± 4.7
Nitrite mg N/l 0.001 0.05 0.01 ± 0.0
Nitrate mg N/l 0.0077 1.04 0.16 ± 0.1
Total phosphorus mg P/l 1.5 6.3 3.2 ± 1.1
Total coliform MPN/100 ml 2.3 × 105 6.7 × 107 2.86 × 107 ± 2 × 107
Fecal coliform MPN/100 ml 1.6 × 103 6.3 × 106 2.5 × 106 ± 2 × 106
a
Average of 3 years operation.

RAW HFCW VFCW

300
250
BOD, mg/l

200
150
100
50
0
173 223 273 323 373 423 473 523 573 623 673 723 773 823
Days

RAW HFCW VFCW

500
450
400
350
COD, mg/l

300
250
200
150
100
50
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
Days
Fig. 2. COD and BOD concentrations in influent and effluent of HFCW and VFCW.

200 RAW HFCW VFCW

180
160
140
TSS mg/l

120
100
80
60
40
20
0
173 223 273 323 373 423 473 523 573 623 673 723 773 823
Days
Fig. 3. TSS concentrations in influent and effluent of HFCW and VFCW.
464 S.I. Abou-Elela et al. / Ecological Engineering 61 (2013) 460–468
solids in most of the samples during the study period. TSS removal
in wetlands is mainly due to physical processes, such as sedimen-
tation and filtration (Kadlec, 2003). It has been recorded that most
suspended solids are retained within the first several meters along
the bed, owing to the quiescent conditions and the shallow depth
of liquid in the system (Vymazal and Maša, 2003).
3.4. Nitrogen transformation
Nitrogen is one of the principal pollutants in wastewater that
can cause toxicity (depending on the nitrogen form) to the aquatic
organisms. Nitrogen exists in wastewater in both organic and inor-
ganic forms. Organic nitrogen can be present in amino acids (forms
peptide chain that make proteins), urea (dispose of ammonia by
mammals when amino acids are used for energy production), uric
acids (produced by birds and insects) and purine, pyrimidines
(involved in DNA making) (Kadlec and Knight, 1996). The inorganic
forms of nitrogen are ammonium (NH4 ), nitrite (NO2 − ), nitrate
(NO3 − ), nitrous oxide (N2 O), and dissolved elemental nitrogen or
nitrogen gas (N2 ). Gaseous nitrogen includes nitrogen gas (N2 ),
nitrous oxide (N2 O), nitric oxide (NO2 ), and free ammonia (NH3 ). In
subsurface flow wetland systems, the transformation and removal
of nitrogen are accomplished by biological (i.e. ammonification,
nitrification, denitrification, plant uptake, biomass assimilation,
dissimilatory nitrate reduction), and physicochemical routes (e.g.
ammonia volatilization, and adsorption). Fig. 4 shows a schematic
diagram of nitrogen transformation in CWs.
3.4.1. Total Kjeldahl nitrogen removal (ammonification)
The great variability in the TKN removal was observed along the
monitoring period (Fig. 5). The average TKN removal efficiencies
throughout the study period were 60% for HFCW with a residual
value of 6.5 mg/l, while it reached 62.5% in VFCW with a resid-
ual value of 16 mg/l. However, these results are better than that
obtained by Zurita et al. (2009) who obtained only 45.8% removal of
TKN in HFCW and 48.2% for VFCW. They performed similar studies
on HFCW and VFCW planted with three different kinds of plants.
TKN represents the form of organic nitrogen in wastewater. The
Fig. 4. Nitrogen transformation in constructed wetlands.
Source: Saeed and Sun (2012).
organic nitrogen of the wastewater includes both soluble and par-
ticulate forms. The soluble form is mainly urea and amino acids
(peptides, proteins, nucleic acids). Its removal from CW occurs by
ammonification process. Ammonification is an energy releasing
complex biochemical process where the amino acids are subjected
to oxidative deamination producing ammonia (NH3 ) (Saeed and
Sun, 2012), as shown in Eq. (1) and depicted by Savant and DeDatta
(1982).
Aminoacids → Iminoacids → Ketoacids → NH3 (1)
The results obtained showed that the VFCW removed TKN better
than HFCW. This may be attributed to the design of the sub-
tidal VFCW that allows more oxygenation for aerobic conditions,
accordingly, accelerate the rate of ammonification. In HFCW the
ammonification is faster in the upper zone of the basin where the
condition is aerobic and slower in the lower zone where the envi-
ronment is anaerobic (Reddy and Patrick, 1984).
Nitrification is a biological oxidation of ammonia-nitrogen
which consists of two step process, where NH4 -N in the pres-
ence of oxygen, is first converted to nitrite-nitrogen (NO2 -N) by
the strictly chemolithotrophic Nitrosomonas, Nitrosococcus and
Nitrosospira bacteria, and then to nitrate nitrogen (NO3 -N) by
facultative chemolithotrophic bacteria Nitrospira, and Nitrobac-
ter (Saeed and Sun, 2012). This can be expressed in Eqs. (2)–(4)
proposed by Reddy and Patrick (1984):
Nitroso-genus
NH4 + 1.5 O2 −→ 2H+ + H2 O + NO−
2 (2)
Nitroso-genus
NO−
2 + 0.5 O2 −→ NO−
3 (3)
The overall nitrification reaction is given below:
NH4 + 2O2 → NO− +
3 + 2H + H2 O (4)
The results depicted in Fig. 6 show great variability in ammonia-
nitrogen removal along the study period. The average removal
efficiency of ammonia-nitrogen NH4 + -N in HFCW was 57.1% with
a residual value of 8.8 mg/l. The VFCW results indicated better
removal of NH4 + -N as it reached 62.7% with a residual value of
6.5 mg/l. Ammonia–nitrogen could be removed mainly through the
 S.I. Abou-Elela et al. / Ecological Engineering 61 (2013) 460–468 465

70 RAW HFCW VFCW

60

50

TKN mg/l
40

30

20

10

0
173 233 293 353 413 473 533 593 653 713 773 833
Days
Fig. 5. TKN concentrations in influent and effluent of HFCW and VFCW.

nitrification process conducted by aerobic nitrifying bacteria that
require aerobic conditions (Vymazal, 2002).
3.4.2. Ammonia removal and nitrate transformation
The variation of nitrate-nitrogen concentrations during the
study period is shown in Fig. 7). The results showed that concen-
trations of VFCW effluent were higher than HFCW effluent. The
average NO−3 -N concentration in the HFCW effluent was 0.2 mg/l,
while in VFCW was 0.44 mg/l. These results proved that VFCW
was more effective than HFCW in nitrification because of the
aerobic conditions in the vertical basin. The higher nitrification
capacity of VFCW may be attributed to enhanced oxygen transfer
from the atmosphere to the beds (Brix, 1997). In an intermittently
loaded vertical flow system, oxygenation in the wetland matrix
was increased several folds compared to other wetland systems,
which may result in efficient nitrification processes (Abou-Elela
and Hellal, 2012).
The nitrate produced in the trated effluent via CWs can subse-
quently be reduced to nitrogen gas by biological denitrification if
there is a readily available carbon source (Vymazal et al., 1998).
Denitrification process is a bacterial process, when N oxides (pro-
duced via nitrification process (Eqs. (2) and (3)) serve as terminal
electron acceptors for respiratory electron transport and organic
compounds serve as electron donors (Vymazal, 1995). Denitrifi-
cation produces nitrogen gas (N2 ), nitrous oxide (N2 O) or nitric
oxide (NO). The common denitrifying bacterial groups responsible
for denitrification are Bacillus, Enterobacter, Micrococcus, Pseu-
domonas, Spirillum (Kadlec and Knight, 1996). Other species, for
example: Proteus, Aerobacter, Flavobacterium can only reduce NO3
to NO2 (Eq. (5)).
NO− −
3 → NO2 → NO + N2 O → N2 (g) ↑ (5)
The overall average removal efficiencies of VFCW were higher
than the HFCW indicating a high conversion of NH4 + -N to nitrate in
the nitrification process. Arias et al. (2005) obtained similar results.
They obtained 52% and 66% removal of ammonia for HFCW and
VFCW, respectively. Their results indicated also that the effect of the
VF design was much better than HF in ammonification and nitri-
fication. Although the NH4 + -N removals in the HFCW were quite
low, the average removals throughout this study were higher than
those reported as average values in other countries, such as, North
America, 24.6% (Kadlec and Knight, 1996); Czech Republic, 42.7%
and Denmark, 32.9% (Vymazal, 2002) and with agreement with the
results obtained by Zurita et al. (2009) in Mexico.
3.4.3. Plants uptake
The presence of plants is necessary for wetlands in improving
nitrogen removal (Herouvim et al., 2011). They provide surfaces
and oxygen for the growth of microorganisms in the rhizosphere,
thereby enhancing nitrification and provide carbon from root exu-
dates, optimizing organics removal and denitrification process
(Osorio et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2012). Wetland plants not only
take up nutrients, heavy metals and organic substances, but also
control the ventilation and microbial conditions in the constructed
wetland bed. In addition, plants can effectively filter or settle out
suspended solids. Therefore, wetland plants have great influence
on the purification capacity of wastewaters (Groudeva et al., 2001;

35 RAW HFCW VFCW

30
Ammonia, mg/l

25

20

15

10

0
173 233 293 353 413 473 533 593 653 713 773 833
Days
Fig. 6. Ammonia concentrations in influent and effluent of HFCW and VFCW.
466 S.I. Abou-Elela et al. / Ecological Engineering 61 (2013) 460–468

RAW HFCW VFCW

1.43
1.3
1.17
1.04

Nitrate, mg/l
0.91
0.78
0.65
0.52
0.39
0.26
0.13
0
-0.13 173 233 293 353 413 473 533 593 653 713 773 833
Days

Fig. 7. Nitrate-concentrations in influent and effluent of HFCW and VFCW.

Fu and Tang, 2005). The plants transport O2 to the rhizosphere,
thereby creating aerobic microsites, adjacent to the roots and
rhizomes where NH4 + will be oxidized first to nitrite by nitrify-
ing bacteria such as Nitrosomonas and then to nitrate by bacteria
(Ye and Li, 2009).
Different comparative studies between unplanted and planted
wetlands, also exhibited higher nitrogen and organics removal in
the latter systems, indicating the necessity of plants for improv-
ing removal performances (Dan et al., 2011; Abou-Elela and Hellal,
2012). The growth of plants in the two pilot units after each har-
vesting is recorded in Table 3.
It is noticed that the plants in HFCW are taller than the plants
in VFCW. This may be attributed to the design of HFCW that
allows continuous flow of wastewater under the plant’s roots.
The results of this study show that the dry biomass of P. australis
in HFCW was 3.72 kg/m2 and 3.26 kg/m2 in VFCW. This biomass
yield was slightly greater than that reported for the same plant by
Hofmann (1986) and Ennabili et al. (1998). They reported a maxi-
mum dry biomass of 2–3 kg/m2 . In addition, the Canna yield in this
study reached 5.02 kg/m2 in HFCW and 4.83 kg/m2 in VFCW com-
pared with 3.125 kg/m2 obtained by Konnerup et al. (2009) for the
same plant. The dry biomass in Cyperus in HFCW and VFCW were
5.6 kg/m2 and 5.36 kg/m2 . The results of biomass production indi-
cated that the density of plants in HFCW is slightly higher than that
in VFCW. The nitrogen uptake in VFCW was 79.33 g/m2 for Cyperus
and 68.1 g N/m2 for Canna, while for P. australis it was 48.6 g N/m2 .
In addition, in HFCW nitrogen uptake was 82.33 g/m2 for Cyperus
and 63.1 g N/m2 for Canna, while for P. australis it was 49.46 g N/m2 .
These results are in agreement with Kuusemets et al. (2002) and
Mander et al. (2004) who reported that nitrogen accumulation in P.
australis and Scirpus sylvaticus growing in a HFCW constructed wet-
land at Kodijärve, Estonia was 67.6 g N/m2 . Our results indicated
that Cyperus was better than Canna and Phragmites in nitrogen
and phosphorus uptake in both basins as shown in Table 3. This
may be attributed to the fact that Cyperus was distributed more
widely in the bed.
3.5. Evapotranspiration
Atmospheric water losses from a wetland occur from the water
is called evaporation, and from emergent portions of plants is called
transpiration. The combination is termed evapotranspiration (ET).
The rate of ET in an arid country as Egypt and in the entire region
depends on the temperature, design criteria and the type of plants
used. The ET rate in HFCW during seasonal variation was higher
than the ET rate in VFCW due to the large surface area of HFCW
(Fig. 8). The results indicated that the ET rate varied from 35% in
winter to a maximum of 60% in the hottest days in summer where
the temperature reached 40–45 ◦ C. However, the ET rate in VFCW
was less by 4–5% compared with HFCW. This result adds more
privilege to the VFCW where more water saving could be achieved.
3.6. Total phosphorous removal
The results obtained in Fig. 9 indicated that VFCW was more
effective for phosphorus removal than HFCW. The removal rate
was 68% for VFCW, while in HFCW it reached 63%. These results
are better than that obtained in other studies carried out by Zurita
et al. (2009) on both HFCW and VFCW planted with different plant
species. They reported that only 44% removal of phosphate was
achieved in HFCW and 50% removal was achieved in VFCW. More-
over, the presence of plants could effectively remove PO4 − because
it is readily available for plant uptake. Only 30% of the influent
phosphate was in organic (P) form, which could not be removed
by plants, but it could have been broken down to inorganic form
by enzyme activity (Kang et al., 2005). Phosphorus is removed

Table 3
Plants heights in HFCW and VFCW during the study period.

Time Plants heights in HFCW (m) Plants heights in VFCW (m)

Canna Phragmites Cyperus Canna Phragmites Cyperus

First year (2010)

6 months 0.7 0.55 – 0.65 0.4 –
12 months 1.8 1.90 – 1.5 1.7 –
Second year (2011)
3 months 0.95 1.1 0.8 0.75 0.9 0.70
6 months 1.8 2.10 1.80 1.5 1.80 1.50
12 months 2.15 2.45 2.2 1.95 2.2 2.0
Third year (2012)
3 months 0.85 1.3 1.1 0.7 1.1 0.90
6 months 1.7 2.3 1.9 1.45 1.90 1.60
12 months 1.95 2.5 2.1 1.7 2.3 1.90
 S.I. Abou-Elela et al. / Ecological Engineering 61 (2013) 460–468 467

HFCW VFCW
70.00%

ET as % of influent hydraulic load

60.00%

50.00%

40.00%

30.00%

20.00%

10.00%

0.00%

Fig. 8. Evapotranspiration rate during the different seasons of the year.

RAW HFCW VFCW

7
6
Phosphorus, mg/l

5
4
3
2
1
0
173 233 293 353 413 473 533 593 653 713 773 833
Days
Fig. 9. Phosphate concentration in influent and effluent of HFCW and VFCW.

Table 4
Average concentration of pathogens in effluent wastewater.

Parameter Unit HFCW VFCW

Min Max Average Min Max Average

Total coliform MPN-index/100 ml 9.00E+01 9.30E+03 3.88E+03 9.00E+01 6.10E+03 2.23E+03

E. coli MPN-index/100 ml 3.20E+02 2.50E+04 4.31E+03 5.00E+01 3.10E+03 1.10E+03
Fecal coliform MPN-index/100 ml 0.00E+00 7.20E+03 2.06E+03 0.00E+00 2.70E+03 8.21E+02

primarily by ligand exchange reactions, where phosphate displaces
water or hydroxyls from the surface of Fe hydrous oxides (Vymazal,
2005). Phosphorus removal by vegetation via growth metabolism is
visible and measurable, and has long been recognized as an impor-
tant method of P removal in wetlands (Kadlec and Knight, 1996).
Also, vegetation can create appropriate conditions for microbial
activity by increasing the surface area in the water, oxygenation
of the environment around the roots, and facilitation of filtra-
tion and sedimentation via encouragement of quiescent conditions
(Klomjek and Nitisoravut, 2005). VFCW provide more oxygenation
than HFCW. Thus, the role of vegetation and oxygen in P removal
in VFCW is greater than HFCW.
VFCWs. They obtained overall removal efficiency of more than 99%.
However, their results indicated that VFCW removed three logs
of coliforms group while, the HFCW removed only two logs. The
main difference between the two types of wetlands was the higher
oxygen concentration in the VFCW. Different research works have
demonstrated that anaerobic conditions prolong the survival of col-
iform in constructed wetlands (Decamp and Warren, 2000). In spite
of the high removal rates in both basins, the residual pathogens
were not complying with the Egyptian Code of practice for wastew-
ater reuse in irrigation (ECP501/2005). Accordingly, disinfection of
the residual pathogens is required.

4. Conclusion
3.7. Reduction of bacterial indicators of pollution
In this study, assessment and evaluation of the performance of
The results depicted in Table 4 show that the VFCW was more two large scales VFCW and HFCW operated at the same conditions
effective for reducing total coliform and fecal coliform than the were carried out. The evaluation was based on physico-chemical
HFCW. Such results agree with those reported by Vacca et al. (2005) and biological measurements in the treated effluent and the three
who found a higher reduction of total coliform and fecal coliform in different plants under consideration. Results indicated that both
468 S.I. Abou-Elela et al. / Ecological Engineering 61 (2013) 460–468
HFCW and VFCW produced a high quality effluent amenable for
wastewater reuse in agriculture according to the Egyptian Code of
Practice. VFCW is recommended for wastewater treatment because
of its smaller size, high quality of treated effluent and less evapo-
transpiration rate. Moreover, VFCW proved to be very promising
technique for wastewater treatment not only for COD, BOD and
TSS reductions, but also for nitrification and pathogenic removal.
The COD, BOD and TSS removal rates reached 92.9%, 93.6% and 94%,
respectively. Also, four logs of bacterial indicators were reduced in
the treated effluent. According to site specific criteria applied in this
study, application of VFCW on large scale in Egypt, as well as given
the similarity in a territorial context; in the Middle East Region,
could be recommended.
Acknowledgement
The authors are very grateful to Consorzio Universitario di
Economia Industriale Manageriale (CUIEM) in Italy for their finan-
cial and technical assistance during the course of this study.
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