Frontier of Environmental Science December 2013, Volume 2, Issue 4, PP.

56-63

The Effect of Two Factor Combination of Three Kinds of Loading on the Soil Clogging in Vertical Flow Constructed Wetland
Qiaoling Xu, Lihua Cui , Ling Zhang, Zixia Li, Guangwei Yu
College of Natural Resource & Environment, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642 China

Email: lihcui@scau.edu.cn

Abstract
In order to understand the occurring process of soil clogging problems in vertical flow constructed wetland under the conditions of two-factor combination of the hydraulic load, organic load and suspended solid load, and to compare the differences of the effect between two factor condition on the system clogging, the simulated vertical flow constructed wetlands were adopt to observe the clogging process of vertical flow constructed wetland in the two-factor combination. The results showed that the impact of two-factor combination on the soil clogging of constructed wetland system from high to low are as the order: high hydraulic load + high organic load > high hydraulic load + high suspended solid load > high hydraulic load + medium organic load > high hydraulic load + medium suspended solid load > medium hydraulic load + medium organic load > medium hydraulic load + high suspended solid load > other combinations (both low hydraulic load). The moisture content of blockage at higher load showed the trend: lower layer > surface layer > middle layer. The high hydraulic loading system first appeared clogging than other systems. In the experiment, the threshold values of hydraulic load, organic load, and suspended solid load suggested as 100 ~ 200 cm/d, 150 g /m2.d, and 10 g/m2.d, respectively. Keywords: Vertical Flow; Constructed Wetland; Clogging; Hydraulic Loading; Organic Load; Suspended Solids Load

1 INTRODUCTION
It is well known that substrate and microorganism plays an important role in wastewater purification process of constructed wetland, and the purification mechanism mainly rely on the large surface area of substrate, and generate the biofilm on surface layer. When water flows through the particle surface, a large amount of suspended solids and insoluble organic matter are trapped or interception through sedimentation, filtration and adsorption and then gradually removed. The removal efficiency of constructed wetland decreases with the running time increases, which is mainly caused by clogging of the substrate. According to the surveys of more than 100 constructed wetlands in the U.S., nearly half of the wetlands are clogged after putting into operation five years later. A constructed wetland built in 1990s in china also blockage due to the high hydraulic load (Zhan Dehao et al., 2003). The permeability of wetland system significantly reduced, and hydraulic characteristics and mass transfer processes have also changed when clogged, thus pollutant removal efficiency affected. Clogging is common phenomenon occurred in influent filtration system of high load, but moderate blockage layer is benefit for sewage treatment, its performance was presented in two aspects: firstly, clogging layer is a good bio-filter, a huge surface area and good biological activity can improve the removal efficiency of wetland system; secondly, moderate substrate porosity clogging of wetland treatment systems can be expanded within the region of unsaturated flow, and then improve the treatment effect. However, the blockage causes deterioration of wetlands, thus affect the flow path, and ultimately affect wetlands treatment effect and operation life. Wetlands are composed of impermeable layer, substrate layer, humus layer and wetland plants and other structural units. Clogging in filler material which is essentially the process of reducing the effective porosity, a long time soil
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clogging of constructed wetland can cause the generation of an anaerobic environment, and accelerate system blockage (Zhu Jie, 2009). Many scholars believe that the main factor causing soil clogging of constructed wetland are physical, biological and chemical factors (Chen, 2007; Bai Jiaqi, 2011). In order to better prevent clogging occurring, blockage model (Blazejewski and Murat -Blazejewska, 1997) and model clogging time (Nivala, et al., 2012) were conducted. And the other influencing factors included: the design of constructed wetlands, operating parameters, pretreatment, intermittent or continuous operation, a tributary of the distribution and type of substrate and so on (Knowles, et al., 2011). At present, more common methods are stop-bed for rest, replacement of the substrate, and replacement or cleaning plants (Daniel, 2011). The rest measures have obvious improvement in blocking solution of constructed wetlands. The content of unfiltered material decreased in stop-bed for resting unit than before which the amount of organic matter reduced very clearly (LI Huaizheng, et al., 2008). According to different factors for clogging phenomenon caused by wetland, the following measures were mainly proposed: (1) for the blockage caused by organic matter, mainly to strengthen the decomposition of organic matter, efficient microorganisms can be cultured to enhance decomposition, and harvest plants (Turon, 2009) and regular removal of organic membrane accumulated on the surface of system (Du Zhongdian, 2002); (2) for the blockage caused by suspended solid the main method is to strengthen the sewage pretreatment, as far as possible to remove insoluble suspended matter (Pan Min, et al., 2011); (3) using the substrate with high-performance, long service life, and easy to cleaning and replacement. Although these measures can reduce soil clogging problems, hydraulic load, organic load and suspended solid load are key parameter in the operation of constructed wetland, so the choice of appropriate hydraulic load, organic load and suspended solid load and scientific operation management mode, which can effectively prevent wetland clogging problem occurred and recovery the clogging problems which have been occurred in the constructed wetland. The purposes of this study were to: (1) observe the processes of soil clogging caused by the different combinations of high organic load and suspended solid load (at low hydraulic load condition), and by the different combinations of medium, high hydraulic load and suspended solid (at low organic load condition) through the two-factor experiment; (2) observe the process of soil clogging caused by the different combinations of medium, high organic load and hydraulic load (at low suspended solid condition), and (3) compare the effect of two-factor combination on the soil clogging of the wetland system.

2 MATERIAL AND METHODS

2.1 Designs of experiment
2.1.1 Simulated vertical flow constructed wetland designed by using soil column 12 Rigid PVC tubes with 7.5cm diameter, and 130cm height were used as soil column, each column was filled with coarse sand and gravel to simulate vertical flow constructed wetland. Packing method follow bottom to top is 10cm thick layer with 3-5cm diameter gravel set for supporting layer, and then 100cm thick coarse sand was filled on the top of gravel, 20cm thick layer was unfilled for sewage irrigation. PVC pipe bottom was connected the glass funnel, the system is fixed on a steel frame, funnel bottom with polyethylene plastic pots to collect water. 2.1.2 Design of experimental load
TABLE1 EXPERIMENTAL LOAD
Types of load Hydraulic load Organic load (COD) Suspend solids load Low load 50 cm/d 100 g/ (m d) 5 g/(m2d)
2

Medium load 100 cm/d 150 g/(m d) 10 g/(m2d)

2

High load 200 cm/d 200 g/(m2d) 20 g/(m2d)

2.1.3 Design of two-factor experiment

TABLE 2 TWO-FACTOR EXPERIMENT
Experimental systems Low hydraulic load Two-factors combination high organic load + high suspend solid load medium organic load + medium suspend solid load - 57 http://www.ivypub.org/fes/ Column No. 1 2

high organic load + medium suspend solid load medium organic load + high suspend solid load high hydraulic load + high suspend solid load Low organic load medium hydraulic load + medium suspend solid load high hydraulic load + medium suspend solid load medium hydraulic load + high suspend solid load high organic load + high hydraulic load Low suspend solids load medium organic load + medium hydraulic load high organic load + medium hydraulic load medium organic load + high hydraulic load

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

2.2 The characteristic of sewage used for experiment

2.2.1 Sewage Sewage is prepared with manual for the test, simulated domestic sewage made by adding soluble starch, urea, Calcium dihydrogen phosphate, FeCl3, powder and soil. Pharmaceutical grade is chemical analytical grade. 2.2.2 Determination the inlet water volume The water volume is determined with the hydraulic load and the diameter of PVC tuber, in three hydraulic loads (50 100200cm/d) , the inlet water volume is 2.2L, 4.4L, and 8.8L, respectively.

2.3 Operation and maintenance of system

Adopt mechanical irrigation, the sewage for test was fed in 5L beaker, the small water pump was set in the sewage beaker, water pump connected a small plastic tube with 2mm inner diameter, and pumped the water to upper part of column, outlet was in the bottom of column.

2.4 Analysis
Matrix organic content analysis: potassium dichromate volumetric method - external heating method; The content of TN in matrix analysis: Kjeldahl nitrogen-H2SO4-consumer cooking method - distillation; The content of TP in matrix analysis: total phosphorus-HClO4-H2SO4 method; The rate of water content of matrix analysis: drying and weighing method.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 The changes of effluent water volume and outlet water time with the running time at low hydraulic loading rate
The inlet water volume is set as 2.2L at low hydraulic loading conditions (50 cm/d). At the hydraulic loading conditions, systems of two-factor combination of medium, high organic load and suspended solid load are No.1, 2, 3, 4, respectively. The No.2 column is a low hydraulic load + medium organic load + medium suspended solid system, and the No.3 column is the low hydraulic load +medium suspended solid +high organic load system, while the No.4 column is a low hydraulic load + medium organic load + high suspended solid load system (Table 2). The changes of effluent water volume and outlet water time are shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2. As can be seen from Fig.1, under these conditions, the change of effluent water volume of each system is not larger, but the change of outlet water time is larger (see Fig. 2). Where the effluent water volume of No.2 column compared than other columns has a greater change, even effluent water volume beyond the 2.5L, indicating that the column contains more water, the particle size distribution of substrate is uneven, and the changes curve of outlet water time also illustrates this point (see Fig. 2). No.3 and No.4 columns are all not stable in term of the changes of effluent water volume and outlet water time. At low hydraulic load condition, the result showed that the effluent water volume and the outlet water time were affected by suspended solid load, especially in medium suspended solid load condition (10g /m2. d).
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NO.1
water volume(L)

NO.2

NO.3

NO.4

3.0 2.0 1.0 0.0

2012.6.7 2012.6.14 2012.6.21 2012.6.28 2012.7.5 2012.7.12 2012.7.19 2012.7.26 2012.8.2 2012.8.9 2012.8.16 2012.8.23 2012.8.30 2012.9.6 2012.9.13 2012.9.20 2012.9.27 2012.10.4 2012.10.11 2012.10.18 2012.10.25 2012.11.1 2012.11.8

sample time

FIG. 1 THE EFFLUENT WATER VOLUME AT LOW HYDRAULIC LOAD

NO.1 NO.2 NO.3 NO.4

outlet time(s )

300.0 200.0 100.0 0.0

2012.6.14

2012.6.21

2012.6.28

2012.7.12

2012.7.19

2012.7.26

2012.8.16

2012.8.23

2012.8.30

2012.9.13

2012.9.20

2012.9.27

2012.6.7

2012.7.5

2012.8.2

2012.8.9

2012.9.6

2012.10.4

2012.10.11

2012.10.18

2012.10.25

2012.11.1

sample time

FIG. 2 THE EFFLUENT WATER TIME AT LOW HYDRAULIC LOAD

3.2 The changes of effluent water volume and outlet water time with the running time at low organic loading rate
At low organic loading conditions (100 g/m2d), the systems of two-factor combination of medium, high hydraulic load and suspended solid load are No.5, 6, 7, 8, respectively. The changes of effluent water volume and outlet water time are shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4. As can be seen from Fig. 3, under low organic load and medium hydraulic load condition, the effluent water volume of No.6 column is similar to that of No.8 column, the No.5 and No.7 have similar trends with effluent water volume at high hydraulic load condition, and the effluent curve was above that of the No.6 and No.8. As can be seen from figure 4, four systems have similar trends with outlet water time changes, and show large fluctuations, it indicated that the suspended solid load have little impact on the effluent water time under low organic load. But the time curves of No.5 and No.7 located above the No.6 and No.8, so hydraulic loading has certain impact on the effluent water time, and the effluent water time is longer in high hydraulic loading condition. This also shows that the effluent water volume of certain substrates is limited, increasing the hydraulic load to increase the effluent water volume is not feasible.
NO.5
10.0

NO.6

NO.7

NO.8

water volume(L)

8.0

6.0

4.0

2.0

0.0

2012.7.5

2012.7.19

2012.8.2

2012.8.16

2012.8.30

2012.9.27

2012.10.25

2012.6.21

2012.9.13

sample time

FIG. 3 THE EFFLUENT WATER VOLUME AT LOW ORGANIC LOAD

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2012.10.11

2012.11.8

2012.6.7

2012.11.8

NO.5 400.0

NO.6

NO.7

NO.8

outlet time(s)

300.0 200.0 100.0 0.0

2012.10.18

2012.10.25

2012.6.7

2012.6.14

2012.6.21

2012.6.28

2012.7.5

2012.7.12

2012.7.19

2012.7.26

2012.8.2

2012.8.9

2012.8.16

2012.8.23

2012.8.30

2012.9.6

2012.9.13

2012.9.20

2012.9.27

2012.10.4

2012.10.11

2012.11.1

sample time

FIG. 4 THE EFFLUENT WATER TIME AT LOW ORGANIC LOAD

3.3 The changes of effluent water volume and outlet water time with the running time at low suspended solid loading rate
At low suspended solid load condition (5 g/m2d), these systems of two-factors combination of medium, high hydraulic load and organic load were No.9, 10, 11, 12, respectively. The changes of effluent water volume and outlet water time are shown in Figure 5 and Figure 6. As can be seen from Figure 5, under low suspended solid load condition, the effluent water volume of the systems of No.9 and No.12 with high hydraulic load has similar trend, while the systems of No.10 and No.11 with medium hydraulic load have similar trends, and the effluent water volume curve located on top of systems of No.6 and No.8. As can be seen from figure 6, the effluent water time of the four systems have large fluctuations at early stage of operation, however, the effluent time curve showed a more stable trend when system running the first month (August), the general trend of each curve of the system similar to each other, indicating that operation of the second month of the treatment system reaches a stable level. In the experimental runs end (after September), the effluent time curve of each system showed a consistent decline, indicating at low organic loading condition, the removal capacity of system has reached a limit and the effluent water time get longer.

FIG. 5 THE EFFLUENT WATER VOLUME AT LOW SUSPENDED SOLIDS LOAD

FIG. 6 THE EFFLUENT WATER TIME AT LOW SUSPENDED SOLIDS LOAD

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2012.11.8

3.4 Accumulation and distribution of blockage

3.4.1 TP accumulation in substrate Total phosphorus content in different systems of two factor of three kinds of load showed the trend: medium, high organic load and hydraulic load system (from No.9 to No.12) > medium, high organic load and suspended solid load system (from No.1 to No.4) > high, medium hydraulic load and suspended solid load system (from No.5 to No.8). As the content of sewage phosphorus formulated in the high, medium organic load and hydraulic load system than the other two systems, more phosphorus accumulated in the surface of wetland substrate, resulting the total phosphorus accumulated far greater than that of high, medium hydraulic load and suspended solid load system (Table 3). It can be seen that the impact of the combination of hydraulic load + organic load on the system is greater than that of the combination of hydraulic load + suspended solid load , which is consistent with water quality analysis and experimental observations.
TABLE 3 TP ACCUMULATION IN SUBSTRATE (g/kg)
Systems Number Surface layer Middle layer Lower layer Medium, high organic load and suspended solid load system 1 5.333 3.303 3.787 2 14.087 3.079 3.113 3 5.303 2.724 2.847 4 3.715 3.429 2.868 5 3.888 3.061 2.868 Medium, high hydraulic load and suspended solid load 6 4.250 3.520 2.776 7 5.800 2.807 2.869 8 3.778 3.141 3.675 9 7.069 3.608 2.933 Medium, high organic load and hydraulic load system 10 11.967 3.289 3.830 11 12.114 3.411 3.806 12 8.152 4.224 2.806

As can be seen from Table 4, a significant blockage have shown in the high, medium organic load and hydraulic load system, especially the surface organic matter concentration of No.12 is particularly high, which is consistent with the water quality analysis. Can also be seen from Table 4, the organic matter content of the same level substrate under the same system was not significantly different, but significantly different in different parts of the system. Comparing the organic matter content of different systems, the trend can be seen as fellows: medium, high organic load and hydraulic loading system (from No.9 to No.12) > high, medium hydraulic load and suspended solid load system (from No.5 to No.7) > medium, high organic load and suspended solid load system (from No.1 to No.4). The analysis revealed that the organic matter accumulation of substrate influenced by the organic load under the same hydraulic load condition, and influenced by the suspended solid load under the same organic load condition.
TABLE 4 ORGANIC MATTER ACCUMULATION IN SUBSTRATE (g/kg)
Systems Number Surface layer Middle layer Lower layer Medium, high organic load and suspended solids load 1 0.898 0.716 0.697 2 0.850 0.750 0.698 3 0.856 0.705 0.691 4 0.834 0.694 0.700 5 0.942 0.701 0.695 0.689 0.704 Medium, high hydraulic load and suspended solids load 6 7 0.826 0.692 0.680 8 0.926 0.690 0.684 Medium, high organic load and hydraulic load 9 0.921 0.713 0.695 10 0.887 0.702 0.681 11 0.873 0.706 0.690 12 1.292 0.726 0.696

The moisture content of the substrate layer along its vertical was measured after a period of operation of the system, the changes of moisture content of the substrate shown in Table 5. Through system analysis of high, and medium organic load and suspended solid load systems, high, and medium hydraulic load and suspended solid load systems, high, and medium organic load and hydraulic load systems, it can be seen that the moisture content of the substrate showed the trend: lower layer > surface layer > middle layer. This may be due to high load condition, the system
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clogging occurs, and the hydraulic residence time getting longer in the surface of system, water content of bottom layer appeared higher. The phenomenon of waterlogged appeared in the surface of some systems, resulting in the moisture content of surface substrate larger than the middle layer.
TABLE 5 MOISTURE CONTENT DISTRIBUTION IN SUBSTRATE (%)
Systems Number Surface layer Middle layer Lower layer Medium, high organic load and suspended solids load 1 7.330 7.494 11.680 2 8.143 7.920 10.369 3 8.665 8.348 10.114 4 8.039 7.833 11.663 5 13.674 8.726 12.486 Medium, high hydraulic load and suspended solids load 6 8.345 7.289 10.987 7 13.368 5.022 24.553 8 9.324 7.146 12.889 Medium, high organic load and

hydraulic load 9 7.348 7.216 11.936 10 11.253 7.371 14.418 11 8.621 7.512 11.943 12 24.806 9.538 12.423

4 CONCLUSIONS
(1) In the two-factor experiment, the combination of high hydraulic load + high organic load systems, and the combination of high hydraulic load + high-solid suspended system are clogging firstly and then the combination of high hydraulic load +medium organic load, the combination of high hydraulic load + medium suspended solid load system, the combination of low hydraulic load system are the latest clogged. (2) In the two-factor experiments, accumulation and distribution of blockage in substrate are as followed: moisture content at higher load shows the trend: lower layer> surface layer > middle layer. The distribution of organic matter and total phosphorus of each system is different. But the accumulation of pollutants is significantly affected by hydraulic load and suspended solid load.

5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.41071214 No.41271245), the Engineering Research Center for Wastewater Ecological Treatment and Waterbody Remediation of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes (No.2012gczxA1004), the Project of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province (No.2010B031800007, 2012A020100003), and the Project of Oceanic and Fisheries Administrator of Guangdong Province (No. B201001C03).

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AUTHORS
1

Qiaoling XU (1985- ), female, Ph.D

Lihua CUI(1963-), Professor, tutor of Ph.D. students. Mainly

candidate, Chief field of research is wastewater controlling and repairing. And now as a phD candidate at south china agriculture university. Email: amy.198510@163.com

engaged in constructed wetland sewage treatment system. Email: lihcui@scau.edu.cn

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