Enhanced Benzofluoranthrene Removal in Surface Flow Constructed Wetlands with the Addition of Carbon

Qingqing Cao; Yan Li; Yan Kang; Zizhang Guo

doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c05202

Enhanced Benzofluoranthrene Removal in Surface Flow Constructed Wetlands with the Addition of Carbon

ACS Omega. 2021 Jan 21;6(4):2865-2872. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c05202. eCollection 2021 Feb 2.

Authors

Qingqing Cao¹, Yan Li², Yan Kang³, Zizhang Guo⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shandong Jianzhu University, Jinan 250014, China.
² College of Education Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China.
³ College of Environment and Safety Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China.
⁴ Shandong Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China.

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), as hazardous pollutants, could be removed by constructed wetlands (CWs). While the traditional substrate of CWs has a weak adsorption capacity for PAHs, in this study, the carbonous fillers-activated carbon (AC) and biochar-were added into the substrate of surface flow CWs to improve the removal performance of benzofluoranthrene (BbFA), a typical PAH. The results showed that the BbFA removal efficiencies in CWs with the addition of AC and biochar were 11.8 and 1.2% higher than those in the Control group, respectively. Simultaneously, the removal efficiencies of NO₃ ^--N were 42.8 and 68.4% in these two CWs, while the BbFA content in the substrate and plants with the addition of carbon was lower than that in the Control group. The addition of carbonous filler reduced the absorption of PAHs by plants in CWs and enhanced microbial degradation. The microbial community results showed that the relative abundance of Proteobacteria, especially γ-proteobacteria, was higher with the addition of fillers, which related to PAH degradation.