Constructed Wetlands Integrated with Advanced Oxidation Processes in Wastewater Treatment for Reuse

Abstract

The development of integrated systems for wastewater treatment has been investigated in recent years not only for the improvement of control parameters but also to allow the routine reuse of wastewater to be effectively implemented. Several studies also seek to add processes that may reuse by-products, energy, and unit operations in a single integrated remediation unit. Considering the sustainability scenario, all these processes should be designed and controlled with description of scope, mass inventory, and energy demand in order to establish indexes of environmental pressure. Classical publications of books and articles for wastewater treatment have already described to more than 10 years several procedures and standards for reuse (direct or indirect), segregation at source, required treatment levels, groundwater recharge, combination of remediation processes, logistics, and sanitation. In this case, further investigation to decentralized systems, such as reed bed filters, with reduced costs of implementation and operation is required, as well as the simplicity of units to be installed. This tendency of integrated phytoremediation systems supports the growing interest for the combination of a system already considered classic in wastewater treatment, the constructed wetlands (CWs), with advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), particularly the photocatalysis with direct or indirect use of solar energy. Because of its already reported disinfection and detoxification potentials which might enable the reuse of urban wastewaters for some specific purposes, the photocatalytic treatment was selected for a study of case. So, this chapter covers the phenological aspects of