Clogging in Vertical Flow Constructed Wetlands: Causes for Clogging and Influence of Decontamination

Abstract With the continuous operation of constructed wetlands, substrate clogging is issue. In order to solve the problem, there is practical significance to understand the causes for clogging in constructed wetlands. Two pilot-scale vertical flow constructed wetlands were established, namely, CW-B and CW-C. By studying the relationship between the accumulation of different substances and the banked-up water area, it was found that the accumulation of non-filter substances and total solids was an important reason for the clogging of the substrate, and the accumulation degree of non-filter inorganic substances was more obvious than that of non-filter organic substances, and the blockage was mainly located in the 10-20 cm layer. In the vertical flow constructed wetland with river sand as the main substrate, water accumulation will occur when the content of total solid and non-filter substances exceeds 67.233 g and 101.228 g per cubic meter of substrate, respectively. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the substrate particle size matching of 0-20 cm layer to reduce the clogging in the vertical flow constructed wetland. The clogging has little effect on chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal, but great effect on total phosphorus (TP) removal. Compared with the control wetland (CW-C), the biomass content in the CW-B with biochar increased by 334.26 nmol P/g, which can improve the removal efficiency of total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP), but also increase the risk of clogging in the vertical flow constructed wetland. Future research should try to combine the anti-blocking research results of biochar constructed wetlands to improve the purification effect, which is of great significance to promote the sustainable development of constructed wetlands.