Performance of constructed wetland treating wastewater from seafood industry

Wastewater from seafood industry contains high concentrations of organic matter, nitrogen compounds, and solid matter. Constructed wetland can be used as tertiary treatment and for nutrient recycling. This research studied the performance of nitrogen and suspended solids removal efficiency of a constructed wetland treating wastewater from a seafood-processing factory located at Songkhla, southern Thailand. The existing constructed wetland has dimensions of 85 m, 352 m and 1.5 m in width, length and depth respectively, with an area of about 29,920 m2. The water depth of 0.30 m is maintained in operation with plantation of cattails (Typha augustifolia). Flow rate of influent ranged between 500-4,660 m3/d. Average hydraulic retention time in the constructed wetland was about 4.8 days. Influent and effluent from the constructed wetland were collected once a week and analyzed for pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), Suspended solid (SS), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), organic nitrogen (Org-N), nitrate (NO3-N), and nitrite (NO2-N). The average removal efficiencies of BOD5, SS, TKN, NH3-N, and Org-N were 84%, 94%, 49%, 52% and 82%, respectively. It was found that the constructed wetland acting as a tertiary treatment process provided additional removal of BOD5, SS and TKN from wastewater from the seafood industry.