Partially Saturated Vertical Constructed Wetlands and Free-Flow Vertical Constructed Wetlands for Pilot-Scale Municipal/Swine Wastewater Treatment Using Heliconia latispatha

Partially saturated vertical constructed wetlands (PSV-CWs) and free-flow vertical constructed wetlands (FFV-CWS) are treatment systems for which there is limited information on their operation in tropical climates and even scarcer information on their use for municipal/swine wastewater treatment. In this work, the removal of pollutants from municipal wastewater mixed with swine effluents was evaluated using PSV-CWs and FFV-CWs, at pilot scale, with the presence and absence of vegetation in a tropical climate. Six vertical flow CWs made up of polyvinyl chloride (1 m high and 0.5 m in diameter) were used; three were operated with free-flow conditions and three with partially saturated conditions. In each type of configuration, two reactors were planted with an individual of Heliconia latispatha, and one remained without vegetation. They were fed with municipal wastewater mixed with 50% of swine wastewater. Their ability to remove COD, TSS, TP, TN, N-NH4, and N-NO3 and plant development were evaluated. Heliconia latispatha registered better results of adaptation and vegetative development in the PSV-CWs in comparison with FFV-CWs measured as total biomass (5697.1 g/m(2) and 5095.7 g/m(2), respectively). PSV-CWs were slightly better for TSS elimination (4.21%), while FFV-CWs presented a better performance for TN removal (3.76%), N-NH4 (3.94%) and N-NO3 (4.76%) in the systems with vegetation; no significant difference (p > 0.05) was found between the two types of CWs for the removal of COD and TP. However, significant differences (p < 0.05) were found between the systems with vegetation and those without vegetation in both configurations. These results demonstrate that PSV-CWs represent a better option for the treatment of municipal/swine wastewater since their efficiency was slightly higher than, or similar to that of, FFV-CWs and allowed a better development of H. latispatha.