Design and development of two novel constructed wetlands: the duplex-constructed wetland and the constructed wetroof

Maribel Zapater Pereyra

Abstract thesis:  Design and development of two novel constructed wetlands: the Duplex-constructed wetland and the Constructed wetroof

Constructed wetlands (CWs) are among the few natural treatment systems that can guarantee an efficient wastewater treatment and an appealing green space at the same time. However, they require large areas for their construction that in many cases is not available.

In this thesis, two domestic wastewater treatment options were designed and studied with the purpose of having a low space requirement: the Duplex-CW and the constructed wetroof (CWR). The Duplex-CW is a hybrid CW composed of a vertical flow CW on top of a horizontal flow filter. The stacked arrangement is the key for reducing the CW footprint. The CWR is a shallow HF CW placed on the roof of a building, thus it does not occupy any land.

Several modifications and improvements have been tested, in addition to the study of the treatment performance, in order to select the most appropriate Duplex-CW and CWR design. Overall, this thesis contributes to the development of two efficient domestic wastewater treatment technologies. The Duplex-CW area requirement is still higher than many CWs and therefore further improvements are necessary. The CWR is the foremost option to save land areas since it requires 0 m2 of land per person equivalent.