Highly enhanced biodegradation of pharmaceutical and personal care products in a novel tidal flow constructed wetland with baffle and plants

Research on decentralized wastewaters deserves special focus due to the potential abundance of emerging organic pollutants including pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs), which might pose serious threats to the local water bodies and even to human health. Constructed wetland (CW) is a common decentralized wastewater treatment technology, with a certain ability to eliminate PPCPs. Nonetheless, PPCPs removal in common CWs is frequently challenging, besides, the removal mechanism remains elusive. Based on our previous study, tidal flow constructed wetlands (TFCWs) is effective in nitrogen removal. Here, 3 TFCWs with different modifications (baffle, plants, both baffle and plants) were constructed to treat raw domestic sewage and specifically to evaluate the removal efficiencies and mechanism of PPCPs. 24 PPCPs including 7 antibiotics, 8 steroid hormones and 9 biocides were detected in the level of 1.10 +/- 0.29 ng/L-799 +/- 10.6 ng/L in the influents. Consequently, we found that modification with both baffle and plants significantly influenced the removal of PPCPs. Moreover, the highest removal rates of biocides (97.1 +/- 0.29%), steroid hormones (99.8 +/- 0.02%), and antibiotics (90.2 +/- 1.60%) were achieved via both baffles and plants in TFCWs. Based on the mass balance analysis, microbial degradation dominated the removal of PPCPs with a percentage higher than 85.7%, followed by substrate adsorption (5.22 x 10(-2) -14.3%) and plant uptake (1.66 x 10(-3) -0.44%). Further, 16S rDNA sequencing analysis revealed that the presence of baffle and plants improve the removal efficiency of PPCPs by means of enhancing microbial diversity and changing dominant microorganisms. Moreover, Thaumarchaeota was potentially the key microorganism in the phylum level for PPCPs elimination by TFCWs through LEfSe (linear discriminant analysis (LDA) effect size) analysis. These findings provide new insights into the removal of PPCPs in CWs. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Studies have shown that modified tidal flow constructed wetlands are effective in removing organic pollutants, especially pharmaceutical and personal care products, with significant removal rates. Mass balance analysis of 24 PPCPs revealed that microbial degradation dominates their removal, with enhanced removal efficiency through changes in dominant microorganisms.