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An ecological vegetation-activated sludge process (V-ASP) for decentralized wastewater treatment: system development, treatment performance, and mathematical modeling

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Abstract

An environment-friendly decentralized wastewater treatment process that is comprised of activated sludge process (ASP) and wetland vegetation, named as vegetation-activated sludge process (V-ASP), was developed for decentralized wastewater treatment. The long-term experimental results evidenced that the vegetation sequencing batch reactor (V-SBR) process had consistently stable higher removal efficiencies of organic substances and nutrients from domestic wastewater compared with traditional sequencing batch reactor (SBR). The vegetation allocated into V-SBR system could not only remove nutrients through its vegetation transpiration ratio but also provide great surface area for microorganism activity enhancement. This high vegetation transpiration ratio enhanced nutrients removal effectiveness from wastewater mainly by flux enhancement, oxygen and substrate transportation acceleration, and vegetation respiration stimulation. A mathematical model based on ASM2d was successfully established by involving the specific function of vegetation to simulate system performance. The simulation results on the influence of operational parameters on V-ASP treatment effectiveness demonstrated that V-SBR had a high resistance to seasonal temperature fluctuations and influent loading shocking.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grants 2012ZX07313001-008 from Chinese Water Pollutant Control and Treatment Program, grant No. 51408149 from National Natural Science Foundation of China, and grant JCYJ20140417172417160 from Shenzhen Science and Technology Funding Project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Water Resource Utilization and Environmental Pollution Control, Shenzhen, 518055, People’s Republic of China

    Jiajia Yuan, Wenyi Dong, Feiyun Sun, Pu Li & Ke Zhao

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  1. Jiajia Yuan
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  2. Wenyi Dong
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  3. Feiyun Sun
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  4. Pu Li
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  5. Ke Zhao
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Correspondence to Feiyun Sun.

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Responsible editor: Bingcai Pan

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Yuan, J., Dong, W., Sun, F. et al. An ecological vegetation-activated sludge process (V-ASP) for decentralized wastewater treatment: system development, treatment performance, and mathematical modeling. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 10234–10246 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6259-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6259-3

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