Performance evaluation of semi continuous vertical flow constructed wetlands (SC-VF-CWs) for municipal wastewater treatment

•Present work shows the feasibility of lab scale CWs technology to industrial scale.•Shows opportunity for simultaneously treatment and polishing of municipal wastewater.•The highest effluents treatment efficiency was observed in the ZVI-CWs.•The EFA deform (2D) plots were used for distributed of nitrogenous species in CWs.

The present study demonstrated the understating of municipal wastewater treatment in five types of CWs operated under semi continuous vertical flow mode. All CWs treatment conditions show the significantly lower pollutants concentrations. The average NH4+-N, TN, NO2−-N, NO3−-N, SO42−, and PO43− removal efficiency in the ISs-CWs were 83.60%, 82.43%, 15.61%, 48.93%, 80.45%, and 78.94% respectively. The average NO2−-N removal efficiency shows that highest nitrite accumulation occurred in the Cont-CWs followed by C-CWs. The lowest increase in the biomass (127.5%) was observed in the Eichhornia crassipes planted in the ISs-CWs. The ISs filtration barrier created in the constructed wetlands was sufficient enough to remove all the pollutants. Principal components EFA 2D deformation plots show the distribution of the various nitrogenous species in the constructed wetlands along different components.

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