Municipal and coffee wastewater treated by a full-scale Constructed Wetlands using ornamental plants under tropical climate

IF 4.1 2区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ECOLOGY

Ecological Engineering Pub Date : 2025-09-22 DOI:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2025.107809

Brenda Lizeth Monzón-Reyes , Ismael Vera-Puerto , Vicente Vergara Florez , María Cristina López Méndez , Alex Elías Álvarez Month , Roberto Ángel Meléndez-Armenta , Luis Carlos Sandoval Herazo

{"title":"Municipal and coffee wastewater treated by a full-scale Constructed Wetlands using ornamental plants under tropical climate","authors":"Brenda Lizeth Monzón-Reyes , Ismael Vera-Puerto , Vicente Vergara Florez , María Cristina López Méndez , Alex Elías Álvarez Month , Roberto Ángel Meléndez-Armenta , Luis Carlos Sandoval Herazo","doi":"10.1016/j.ecoleng.2025.107809","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The coffee industry significantly contributes to economic growth in rural communities within developing countries. However, coffee processing can lead to considerable water pollution. Therefore, exploring simpler and more sustainable treatment alternatives, such as constructed wetlands (CWs), is crucial. This study aims to evaluate the performance of a full-scale wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) with CWs for treating a co-mixture of rural domestic wastewater and coffee production wastewater in Mexico. For this, the WWTP consisting of a settler tank and four CWs in series was evaluated over the course of one year. The CWs units are planted with five different ornamental plant species. The results show no significant (p > 0.05) change in the influent characteristics when coffee production wastewater was added. A link was established between rainfall in the contributing area and removal efficiency in the settler tank located at the system's starting point. However, this behavior did not affect the CW's performance. The WWTP achieved annual mean removal efficiencies of 87 % for COD, 60 % for TN, 59 % for NH₄+-N and NO₃−-N, 68 % for NO₂−-N, 76 % for TP, 74 % for PO43−-P, and over 99 % for caffeine. Considering this performance, the WWTP effluent complies with the Official Mexican Standard provided permissible discharge values. Therefore, this study provides full-scale evidence of CWs potential for wastewater treatment in rural areas of developing countries. Furthermore, this type of WWTP offers a viable alternative for addressing the issue of untreated wastewater discharge in rural communities, particularly concerning when these communities developing productive activities like coffee processing.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11490,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Engineering","volume":"222 ","pages":"Article 107809"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ecological Engineering","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092585742500299X","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The coffee industry significantly contributes to economic growth in rural communities within developing countries. However, coffee processing can lead to considerable water pollution. Therefore, exploring simpler and more sustainable treatment alternatives, such as constructed wetlands (CWs), is crucial. This study aims to evaluate the performance of a full-scale wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) with CWs for treating a co-mixture of rural domestic wastewater and coffee production wastewater in Mexico. For this, the WWTP consisting of a settler tank and four CWs in series was evaluated over the course of one year. The CWs units are planted with five different ornamental plant species. The results show no significant (p > 0.05) change in the influent characteristics when coffee production wastewater was added. A link was established between rainfall in the contributing area and removal efficiency in the settler tank located at the system's starting point. However, this behavior did not affect the CW's performance. The WWTP achieved annual mean removal efficiencies of 87 % for COD, 60 % for TN, 59 % for NH₄⁺-N and NO₃⁻-N, 68 % for NO₂⁻-N, 76 % for TP, 74 % for PO₄³⁻-P, and over 99 % for caffeine. Considering this performance, the WWTP effluent complies with the Official Mexican Standard provided permissible discharge values. Therefore, this study provides full-scale evidence of CWs potential for wastewater treatment in rural areas of developing countries. Furthermore, this type of WWTP offers a viable alternative for addressing the issue of untreated wastewater discharge in rural communities, particularly concerning when these communities developing productive activities like coffee processing.

查看原文本刊更多论文

热带气候下观赏植物人工湿地处理城市和咖啡废水

咖啡业对发展中国家农村社区的经济增长作出了重大贡献。然而，咖啡加工会导致相当大的水污染。因此，探索更简单和更可持续的处理方案，如人工湿地（CWs）是至关重要的。本研究旨在评估墨西哥农村生活污水和咖啡生产废水混合处理的全规模污水处理厂（WWTP）的性能。为此，在一年的时间里，对由一个沉淀池和四个连续的化粪池组成的污水处理厂进行了评估。花园内种植了五种不同的观赏植物。结果表明，加入咖啡生产废水后，进水特性无显著变化（p > 0.05）。在贡献区域的降雨量与位于系统起点的沉淀池的去除效率之间建立了联系。然而，这种行为并没有影响CW的性能。污水处理厂的年平均COD去除率为87%，TN去除率为60%，NH₄+-N和NO₃−-N去除率为59%，NO₂−-N去除率为68%，TP去除率为76%，PO43−-P去除率为74%，咖啡因去除率超过99%。考虑到这一性能，污水处理厂的污水符合墨西哥官方标准提供的允许排放值。因此，本研究提供了全面的证据，证明化粪池在发展中国家农村地区的废水处理潜力。此外，这种类型的污水处理厂为解决农村社区未经处理的废水排放问题提供了一个可行的替代方案，特别是当这些社区发展咖啡加工等生产活动时。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Ecological Engineering 环境科学-工程：环境

CiteScore

8.00

自引率

5.30%

发文量

293

审稿时长

57 days

期刊介绍： Ecological engineering has been defined as the design of ecosystems for the mutual benefit of humans and nature. The journal is meant for ecologists who, because of their research interests or occupation, are involved in designing, monitoring, or restoring ecosystems, and can serve as a bridge between ecologists and engineers. Specific topics covered in the journal include: habitat reconstruction; ecotechnology; synthetic ecology; bioengineering; restoration ecology; ecology conservation; ecosystem rehabilitation; stream and river restoration; reclamation ecology; non-renewable resource conservation. Descriptions of specific applications of ecological engineering are acceptable only when situated within context of adding novelty to current research and emphasizing ecosystem restoration. We do not accept purely descriptive reports on ecosystem structures (such as vegetation surveys), purely physical assessment of materials that can be used for ecological restoration, small-model studies carried out in the laboratory or greenhouse with artificial (waste)water or crop studies, or case studies on conventional wastewater treatment and eutrophication that do not offer an ecosystem restoration approach within the paper.