Online Monitoring of a Long-Term Full-Scale Constructed Wetland for the Treatment of Winery Wastewater in Italy

Abstract

Nature-based solutions, such as Constructed Wetlands (CWs), for the treatment of industrial wastewater can be more efficiently operated making use of online monitored parameters as inlet/outlet flows and concentrations for specific substances. The present study compares different datasets acquired in a two-and-a-half-year-long period by normal laboratory methods and also from a specific COD/BOD sensor installed at a winery CWs wastewater treatment plant in Tuscany, Italy. The CW wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) is composed of: equalization tank (70 m3); French Reed Bed (1200 m2); horizontal subsurface flow (HF) CW (960 m2): free water system (850 m2); optional post-treatment sand filter (50 m2); and emergency recirculation. The obtained average performances for this last period are for COD 97.5%, for MBAS 93.1%, for N-NO2- 84.7%, for NO3- 39.9%, and for TP 45.5%. The online sensor has shown excellent performance in following the COD concentration patterns along the observed period. The qualitative and quantitative validity of the online sensor measurements has been assessed by statistical analysis (t-test) and reported in the paper. Online data, acquired every 30 min, availability is of extreme importance for the CW system performance optimization, for understanding the behavior of the WWTP in different operative scenarios, and finally for driving the powering on or off eventual process enhancement tools.