Effect of corn cobs as external carbon sources on nitrogen removal in constructed wetlands treating micro-polluted river water

Abstract

Micro-polluted river water is characterized as having limited biodegradability, low carbon to nitrogen ratio and little organic carbon supply, all of which makes it hard to further purify. Two bench scale constructed wetlands (CWs) with a horizontal subsurface flow mode were set up in the laboratory to evaluate their feasibility and efficiency on denitrification with and without corn cobs as external carbon sources. Micro-polluted river water was used as feed solution. The CW without corn cobs substrates possessed a good performance in removing chemical oxygen demand (COD, <40 mg/L) and ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N, <0.65 mg/L), but less efficiency in removing total nitrogen (TN) and nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N). In marked contrast, the CW with 1% (w/w) corn cobs substrates as external carbon sources achieved a significant improvement in the removal efficiency of TN (increased from 34.2% to 71.9%) and NO3-N (increased from 19% to 71.9%). The incorporation of corn cobs substrates did not cause any obvious increase in the concentrations of COD and NH3-N in the effluent. This improvement in the denitrification efficiency was owing to the released organic carbon from corn cobs substrates, which facilitated the growth of abundant microbes on the surface and pores of the substrate. The open area of the used corn chips is larger than that of the pristine ones, and corn cobs can continue to provide a carbon fiber source for denitrification.