Novel advanced porous concrete in constructed wetlands: preparation, characterization and application in urban storm runoff treatment

Abstract

Abstract Common porous concrete templates (CPCT) and advanced porous concrete templates (APCT) were employed in this study to construct wetlands for their applications in pollutant removal from storm runoff. The planting ability of the concrete was investigated by growing Festuca elata plants in them. Strength of the porous concrete (7.21 ± 0.19 Mpa) decreased by 1.8 and 4.9% over a period of six and 12 months, respectively, due to its immersion in lake water. The height and weight of Festuca elata grass growth on the porous concrete were observed to be 12.6–16.9 mm and 63.4–95.4 mg, respectively, after a duration of one month. Advanced porous concrete template based constructed wetland (APCT-CW) showed better removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) (49.6%), total suspended solids (TSS) (58.9), NH3-N (52.4%), total nitrogen (TN) (47.7%) and total phosphorus (TP) (45.5%) in storm water, when compared with the common porous concrete template based constructed wetland (CPCT-CW) with 20.6, 29.8, 30.1, 35.4 and 26.9%, respectively. The removal of Pb, Ni, Zn by the CPCT-CW unit were 28.9, 33.3 and 42.3%, respectively, whereas these were 51.1, 62.5 and 53.8%, respectively, with the APCT-CW unit. These results demonstrate that the advanced porous concrete template in constructed wetland could be employed successfully for the removal of pollutants from urban storm water runoff.