Artículos de revistas
THE EFFECT OF THE HYDRAULIC RETENTION TIME ON THE PERFORMANCE OF AN ECOLOGICAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEM AN ANAEROBIC FILTER WITH A CONSTRUCTED WETLAND
Autor
ALBERTO LOPEZ LOPEZ
JOSE DE ANDA SANCHEZ
Edgardo Villegas Garcia
MARIA DE LA LUZ MERINO SOLIS
Institución
Resumen
This work assesses the performance of a municipal pilot wastewater treatment
system employing an up-flow anaerobic filter (UAF) followed by a horizontal subsurface
constructed wetland (HSSCW). This pilot scale demonstration project was implemented in
a zone with subtropical climate in order to protect Lake Chapala from wastewater loads that
are discharged by small communities in the Lake’s vicinity. The filters were filled with
tezontle as the media for biofilm support and the HSSCW was planted with two ornamental
plants species, Canna hybrids and Strelitzia reginae. The experiment evaluated three hydraulic
retention times (HRT) of 18, 28 and 38 h in the UAF, which corresponds to two, three and
four days in HSSCW over 66 weeks. The mean efficiencies found for the complete system
were 80% and 90% of BOD, 80% and 86% of COD, 30% and 33% of Ntot and between 24%
and 44% of Ptot. It was possible to remove almost 80% of organic matter in 18 h in the UAF
while the HSSCW reached 30% of removal for Ntot in a HRT of three days. As expected, the
UAF was responsible for removing most of the organic matter and the HSSCW removed most
of the nitrogen.