Nutrient removal by up-scaling a hybrid floating treatment bed (HFTB) using plant and periphyton: From laboratory tank to polluted river

• DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2016.02.011
• Publication Date: 2016-02-09T13:03:03Z
• Authors: Junzhuo Liu; Fengwu Wang; Wei Liu; Cilai Tang; Chenxi Wu; Yonghong Wu
• Keywords: Periphyton; Shading; Limiting

Planted floating treatment bed (FTB) is an innovative technique of removing nutrients from polluted water but limited in deep water and cold seasons. Periphyton was integrated into FTB for a hybrid floating treatment bed (HFTB) to improve its nutrient removal capacity. To assess its potential for treating nutrient-polluted rivers, HFTB was up-scaled from 5L laboratory tanks to 350L outdoor tanks and then to a commercial-scale 900m section of polluted river. Plants and periphyton interacted in HFTB with periphyton limiting plant root growth and plants having shading effects on periphyton. Non-overlapping distribution of plants and periphyton can minimize the negative interactions in HFTB. HFTB successfully kept TN and TP of the river at less than 2.0 and 0.02mgL(-1), respectively. This study indicates that HFTB can be easily up-scaled for nutrients removal from polluted rivers in different seasons providing a long-term, environmentally-friendly method to remediate polluted ecosystems.