Water treatment and reclamation by implementing electrochemical systems with constructed wetlands

Suanny Mosquera-Romero; Eleftheria Ntagia; Diederik P L Rousseau; Abraham Esteve-Núñez; Antonin Prévoteau

doi:10.1016/j.ese.2023.100265

Water treatment and reclamation by implementing electrochemical systems with constructed wetlands

Environ Sci Ecotechnol. 2023 Mar 21:16:100265. doi: 10.1016/j.ese.2023.100265. eCollection 2023 Oct.

Authors

Suanny Mosquera-Romero^{1

2

3

4}, Eleftheria Ntagia^{1

5}, Diederik P L Rousseau³, Abraham Esteve-Núñez⁶, Antonin Prévoteau^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Center for Microbial Ecology and Technology (CMET), Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium.
² ESPOL Polytechnic University, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, ESPOL, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Matemáticas, BOX9050, Ecuador.
³ Department of Green Chemistry and Technology, Ghent University, Sint-Martens-Latemlaan 2B, B-8500, Kortrijk, Belgium.
⁴ Centre for Advanced Process Technology for Urban Resource Recovery (CAPTURE), Frieda Saeysstraat 1, 9000, Ghent, Belgium.
⁵ Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, PROSE, 92160, Antony, France.
⁶ Universidad de Alcalá, Department of Analytical Chemistry, Physical Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Alcalá de Henares, Spain.

Abstract

Seasonal or permanent water scarcity in off-grid communities can be alleviated by recycling water in decentralized wastewater treatment systems. Nature-based solutions, such as constructed wetlands (CWs), have become popular solutions for sanitation in remote locations. Although typical CWs can efficiently remove solids and organics to meet water reuse standards, polishing remains necessary for other parameters, such as pathogens, nutrients, and recalcitrant pollutants. Different CW designs and CWs coupled with electrochemical technologies have been proposed to improve treatment efficiency. Electrochemical systems (ECs) have been either implemented within the CW bed (ECin-CW) or as a stage in a sequential treatment (CW + EC). A large body of literature has focused on ECin-CW, and multiple scaled-up systems have recently been successfully implemented, primarily to remove recalcitrant organics. Conversely, only a few reports have explored the opportunity to polish CW effluents in a downstream electrochemical module for the electro-oxidation of micropollutants or electro-disinfection of pathogens to meet more stringent water reuse standards. This paper aims to critically review the opportunities, challenges, and future research directions of the different couplings of CW with EC as a decentralized technology for water treatment and recovery.

Keywords: Advanced oxidation; Decentralized systems; Disinfection; Electrification; Sanitation and reuse.