ABSTRACT
The objective of this study was to evaluate the pollutant removal of swine wastewater in horizontal-flow constructed wetlands (CW) and the contribution of vegetable species Polygonum punctatum (smartweed) and Chrysopogon zizanioides (vetiver grass). Three CW's were implanted with expanded clay as support bed, one cultivated with P. punctatum (CWE), another cultivated with C. zizanioides (CWV) and one without cultivation, used as control (CWC). Using a nominal hydraulic retention time (τ) of 3.21 days, theaverage removal efficiencies of BOD, NT and PT obtained were 85, 38 e 51% (CWC), 89, 48 e 69% (CWE) and 81, 36 e 45% (CWV), respectively. The best performance was observed on CWE. The dry mass productivities were 2.79 and 1.91 g m-2 d-1. NT removals were 1.54 and 1.01% and PT removals were 0.81 and 1.19%, respectively for Polygonum punctatum and Chrysopogon zizanioides .
Keywords:
constructed wetlands; nutrients removal; Chrysopogon zizanioides; Polygonum punctatum