International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056 Volume: 07 Issue: 05 | May 2020 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072 © 2020, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.529 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 3109 A Research Paper on Treatment of Domestic Wastewater using Vertical Flow Constructed Wetland (VFCW) Saurabh S. Joshi 1 , Dr. A.V. Shivapur², Dr. V. V. Karjinni 3 , Dr.M.R. Patil⁴, Mr. Pramod Jadhav 5 Miss. Aarti M. Patil 6 ¹Assistant professor, Department of Environmental Engineering, KIT’s College of Engineering (Autonomous), Kolhapur, Maharashtra, ²Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, VTU, Belagavi, 3 Director, KIT’s College of Engineering (Autonomous) Kolhapur, Maharashtra, 6 P.G. Student, Dept. of Environmental Engineering, KIT’s College of Engineering Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India. ---------------------------------------------------------------------***---------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract: Constructed wetland was most effective and efficient treatment to treat wastewater. In recent years Vertical flow constructed wetland (VFCW) was used on large scale to treat wastewater due to its less operation and maintenance cost. The macrophyte used in this study were Colocasia esculenta and Ipomoea Carnea. The wetland was fed with HLR of 0.18 m 3 /m 2 /hr. In case of Colocasia removal efficiency for COD, BOD3 and TSS was 70%, 56% and 78% respectively. For Ipomoea Carnea percentage removal efficiency was 82, 76, and 91 for COD, BOD3 and TSS respectively. For combination of these two plants removal efficiency for COD, BOD3 and TSS was 79%, 74% and 90% respectively. Keywords: Vertical Flow Constructed Wetland, Domestic wastewater, Colocasia escluenta, Ipomoea Carnea 1. Introduction: Water is one of the important element in the creation. The exponential growth of population and industrialization will cause a scarcity of water. The domestic waste and effluents from industry, institutional and agricultural sector directly discharged in surface water bodies. As a result of this these water bodies are gets excessively polluted and reduces water quality. In order to avoid this deterioration of water quality and to maintain or improve water quality index there is necessity to treat this sources of wastewater. Conventional wastewater treatment methods requires high operation and maintenance cost, high energy requirement and also land requirement is more. Hence, in recent years conventional wastewater treatment methods are not preferred. To treat this wastewater low operation cost, low maintenance and low energy treatment methods are preferred. Decentralised wastewater treatment methods near its sources are more suitable. Hence, they are preferred on large scale in developing countries. Reuse of domestic wastewater is an emerging field in developing countries. Constructed wetlands (CWs) are most reliable and low cost treatment method among various methods. Hence, constructed wetlands gets more recognition in recent years. Constructed wetland systems evolved over period of time to improve water quality. Through combination of complex physical, chemical and biological processes pollutants were removed and quality of water gets enhanced. For VFCW, vegetation and substrate are two main components. Substrate acts as a filter media and composed of locally available materials like sand, gravel and soil. Plant species used are locally available and able to withstand against local adverse conditions. Vegetation is the important factor to eliminate TSS, COD, BOD5 and NH4. Presence of vegetation improves removal rate of COD, BOD5, TSS, Total kjedhal Nitrogen (TKN) and Total Phosphorous (TP). Vertical flow constructed wetland requires less area and high oxygen transfer capacity inside the bed also it has simple hydraulics. VFCW requires less operation and maintenance cost. Hence it is feasible and used widely all over the world. More is oxygen transfer capacity more is the pollutant removal from wastewater. Removal efficiency of pollutant was more in case of VFCW than that of HFCW. 2. Materials and Methodology 2.1. Experimental Setup: The wastewater was collected from nallah by grab sampling. The fig. given below shows the experimental setup of VFCW. VFCW bed includes below mentioned layers from top to bottom: Alluvial soil (particle size: Retained on 0.18 mm), River sand (particle size: 0.18- 4.75mm), Crushed sand (particle size: 0.6-4.75mm), Blast Furnace slag (particle size: 0.6- 4.75mm), Fine Aggregate (particle size: 10-20mm), and Coarse Aggregate (particle size: 20- 40mm). The thickness of coarse and fine aggregate layer was 0.075m each and remaining all layers were 0.15m each. The species used in wetland were Ipomoea Carnea and