The use of constructed wetland for dye-rich textile wastewater treatment

The objective of the present paper was to examine the treatment efficiency of constructed wetlands (CW) for the dye-rich textile wastewater with special focus on colour reduction. Preliminary, a series of dynamic experiments were performed in the CW model packed with gravel, sand, and zeolitic tuff on three synthetically-prepared wastewaters using chemically differ dyestuffs, auxiliaries and chemicals, in order to investigate the potential of low-cost materials as media for textile dye-bath wastewater treatment. The obtained results evidence that applied CW model reduces colour by up to 70%, and COD and TOC by up to 45%. Based on these results, the pilot CW with vertical (VF) and horizontal flow (HF) was constructed near textile factory mainly for cotton and cotton/PES processing with intention to treat real textile wastewater in-situ. It was designed for 1 m3/d, covering 80 m2, packed with sand and gravel, and planted with Phragmites australis. The average treatment efficiency of the CW for the selected pollution parameters were: COD 84%, BOD5 66%, TOC 89%, Ntotal 52%, Norganic 87%, NH4-N -331%, sulphate 88%, anion surfactant 80%, total suspended solids (TSS) 93%, and colour 90%, respectively. The results unequivocally proved that the CW could offer an optimal solution to meet the environmental legislation as well as requirements for effective and inexpensive textile wastewater treatment