Polishing wastewater effluent using plants: floating plants perform better than submerged plants in both nutrient removal and reduction of greenhouse gas emission

While research on aquatic plants used in treatment wetlands is abundant, little is known about the use of plants in hydroponic ecological wastewater treatment, and its simultaneous effect on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Here, we assess the effectiveness of floating and submerged plants in removing nutrients and preventing GHG emissions from wastewater effluent. We grew two species of floating plants, Azolla filiculoides and Lemna minor, and two species of submerged plants, Ceratophyllum demersum and Callitriche platycarpa, on a batch of domestic wastewater effluent without any solid substrate. In these systems, we monitored nitrogen and phosphorus removal and fluxes of CO2, CH4 and N2O, for 2 weeks. In general, floating plants produced the most biomass, whereas submerged plants were rapidly overgrown by filamentous algae. Floating plants removed nutrients most efficiently; both floating species removed 100% of the phosphate while Lemna also removed 97-100% of the inorganic nitrogen, as opposed to a removal of 81-88% in submerged plants with algae treatments. Moreover, aquaria covered by floating plants had roughly three times higher GHG uptake than the treatments with submerged plants or controls without plants. Thus, effluent polishing by floating plants can be a promising avenue for climate-smart wastewater polishing.

Automated summary

While there is abundant research on aquatic plants used in treatment wetlands, little is known about the use of plants in hydroponic ecological wastewater treatment and their impact on GHG emissions. This study focuses on the effectiveness of floating and submerged plants in removing nutrients and preventing GHG emissions from wastewater effluent. The results show that floating plants have higher nutrient removal efficiency and GHG uptake compared to submerged plants, making them a promising solution for climate-smart wastewater treatment.