Performance of a Tower-Shaped Integrated Ecological Purification Device for Pollutants Removal from Domestic Sewage in Rural Areas

Abstract

With the continuous development of China’s modern economy and agricultural society, the discharge of rural sewage has been recognized as a major threat to the safety of the rural ecological environment. This study discussed the purification efficiency of a tower-shaped integrated ecological purification device (TIEPD)—consisting of a measuring tank, detention tank and three-stage purification unit—towards various common pollutants in rural areas during operation and tested the stability and efficiency of the TIEPD under different rural life events (fair activity days and nonfair activity days) and different precipitation intensities (light rain, moderate rain and heavy rain). The results showed that the average removal efficiencies of the TIEPD towards chemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen, total nitrogen and total phosphorus were 69%, 67%, 54% and 73%, respectively. The average effluent concentration of each pollutant can meet the standard of the discharge of pollutants in China. The system exhibited good stability in removing pollutants and good ecological and economic benefits. This study provides the treatment of domestic sewage in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and in mountainous areas of China and strengthens the prevention and control of rural nonpoint source pollution.