Development of alum sludge-based constructed wetland: An innovative and cost effective system for wastewater treatment

This article describes a research attempt to integrate the dewatered alum sludge, a residual by-product of drinking water treatment process, into a constructed wetland (CW) system for the purpose of enhancing the wastewater treatment performance, thus developing a so called alum sludge-based constructed wetland system. A multi-dimensional research project including the batch tests of phosphorus (P) adsorption onto alum sludge followed by the model CWs trials of single and multi-stage CWs, has been conducted since 2004. It has been successfully demonstrated that the alum sludge-based CW is capable of enhanced and simultaneous removal of P and organic matter (in terms of BOD5 and COD), particularly from medium and high strength wastewater. The sludge cakes act as the carrier for developing biofilm for organics removal and also serve as adsorbent to enhance P immobilization. Batch P-adsorption tests revealed that the alum sludge tested possesses excellent P-adsorption ability of 14.3 mg-P/g.sludge (in dry solids) at pH 7.0 with the adsorption favored at lower pH. The results obtained in a 4-stage treatment wetland system suggest that high removal efficiencies of 90.4% for COD, 88.0% for BOD5, 90.6% for SS, 76.5% for TN and 91.9% for PO(4)3(-)-P under hydraulic loading of 0.36 m(3)/m(2).d can be achieved. The field demonstration study of this pioneering development is now underway.