Effect of artificial aeration on the performance of vertical-flow constructed wetland treating heavily polluted river water

Three lab-scale vertical-flow constructed wetlands （VFCWs）, including the non-aerated （NA）, intermittently aerated （IA） and continuously aerated （CA） ones, were operated at different hydraulic loading rates （HLRs） to evaluate the effect of artificial aeration on the treatment efficiency of heavily polluted river water. Results indicated that artificial aeration increased the dissolved oxygen （DO） concentrations in IA and CA, which significantly favored the removal of organic matter and NH4＋-N. The DO grads caused by intermittent aeration formed aerobic and anoxic regions in IA and thus promoted the removal of total nitrogen （TN）. Although the removal efficiencies of CODEr, NH4＋-N and TN in the three VFCWs all decreased with an increase in HLR, artificial aeration enhanced the reactor resistance to the fluctuation of pollutant loadings. The maximal removal efficiencies of CODEr, NH4＋-N and total phosphorus （TP） （i.e., 81%, 87% and 37%, respectively） were observed in CA at 19 cm/day HLR, while the maximal TN removal （i.e., 57%） was achieved in IA. Although the improvement of artificial aeration on TP removal was limited, this study has demonstrated the feasibility of applying artificial aeration to VFCWs treating polluted river water, particularly at a high HLR.

Removal efficacy and mechanism of nitrogen and phosphorus by biological aluminum-based P-inactivation agent (BA-PIA)

In this study,aluminum-based P-inactivation agent(Al-PIA)was used as a high-efficiency microbial carrier,and the biological Al-PIA(BA-PIA)was prepared by artificial aeration.Laboratory static experiments were conducted to study the effect of BA-PIA on reducing nitrogen and phosphorus contents in water.Physicochemical characterization and isotope tracing method were applied to analyze the removal mechanism of nitrogen and phosphorus.High-throughput techniques were used to analyze the characteristic bacterial genus in the BA-PIA system.The nitrogen and phosphorus removal experiment was conducted for 30 days,and the removal rates of NH_(4)^(+)-N,TN and TP by BA-PIA were 81.87%,66.08%and 87.97%,respectively.The nitrogen removal pathways of BA-PIA were as follows:the nitrification reaction accounted for 59.0%(of which denitrification reaction accounted for 56.4%),microbial assimilation accounted for 18.1%,and the unreacted part accounted for 22.9%.The characteristic bacteria in the BA-PIA system were Streptomyces,Nocardioides,Saccharopolyspora,Nitrosomonas,and Marinobacter.The loading of microorganisms only changed the surface physical properties of Al-PIA(such as specific surface area,pore volume and pore size),without changing its surface chemical properties.The removal mechanism of nitrogen by BA-PIA is the conversion of NH_(4)^(+)-N into NO_(2)^(−)-N and NO_(3)^(−)-N by nitrifying bacteria,which are then reduced to nitrogen-containing gas by aerobic denitrifying bacteria.The phosphorus removal mechanism is that metal compounds(such as Al)on the surface of BA-PIA fix phosphorus through chemisorption processes,such as ligand exchange.Therefore,BA-PIA overcomes the deficiency of Al-PIA with only phosphorus removal ability,and has better application prospects.