Simultaneous enhanced ammonia and nitrate removal from secondary effluent in constructed wetlands using a new manganese-containing substrate

Highlights

● MnO₂/PCL composite material (MPCM) enhances ammonia and nitrate removal in CWs.

● The reduction and re-oxidation of MnO₂ both facilitate the removal of ammonia.

● Mnammox accounts for 17.16%–27.24% of ammonia removal at the height of 0–20 cm.

● MPCM promotes the richness of ammonia oxidizers and denitrifiers in CWs.

● MPCM significantly decreases N₂O emission in CWs.

Abstract

Constructed wetlands (CWs) are widely used to treat secondary effluent. However, simultaneously removing ammonia (NH₄⁺-N) and nitrate (NO₃^––N) is challenging because of insufficient oxygen and carbon sources. In this study, a novel composite material (MPCM) comprising MnO₂ and polycaprolactone was developed as a substrate for CWs to enhance the synchronous removal of NH₄⁺–N and NO₃^––N. The CWs with a higher MPCM content (H-CW), lower MPCM content (L-CW), and controlled CW (C-CW) exhibited average NH₄⁺–N removal efficiencies of 75.69%, 70.49%, and 52.40%, respectively. The ¹⁵N isotope tracking technique showed that NH₄⁺–N removal was attributed to anaerobic ammonia oxidation mediated by MnO₂ reduction (Mnammox), which accounted for 17.16%–27.24% of the NH₄⁺–N removal in the composite material layers (0–20 cm) of the H-CW and L-CW. The richness of ammonia oxidizers in the upper layers (40–50 cm) of the H-CW and L-CW further facilitated NH₄⁺–N removal. Moreover, the average total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiencies of the H-CW and L-CW were 1.99 and 1.59 times that of C-CW, respectively, owing to enhanced denitrification by MPCM. Furthermore, N₂O emissions were reduced by 81.31% and 70.83% in the H-CW and L-CW, respectively. This study provides an effective approach for improving nitrogen removal and reducing N₂O emissions during the treatment of secondary effluent by CWs.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Constructed wetland / Nitrogen removal / Manganese redox / Polycaprolactone / Nitrous oxide

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Chongqing Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (CSTB2022NSCQ-JQX0023).

Declaration of Competing Interest

The author Yi Chen is a Youth Editorial Board Member of Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering. The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-024-1807-4 and is accessible for authorized users.

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