Seasonal effect on ammonia nitrogen removal by constructed wetlands treating polluted river water in southern Taiwan.

A pilot-scale constructed wetland (CW) system, combining a free water surface wetland and a subsurface wetland in series, was used to purify highly polluted river water. The concentrations of constituents varied seasonally. The effects of season-dependent parameters, such as temperature, mass loading rate and inflow salinity, on the removal of ammonia nitrogen (AN) in the wetland system were examined at a constant hydraulic loading rate, based on data from June 1998 to February 2000. AN removal of the CW varied cyclically with the seasons. The removal efficiency and the first-order volumetric removal rate constant (k(V)) increased exponentially with water temperature, yielding a high temperature coefficient (theta). However, the mass removal rate decreased exponentially as temperature increased. These contradictory results made the actual effect of temperature uncertain. The inhibition of high water salinity on AN removal was also unclear because k(V) (as well as k(V20)) and mass removal rate were inversely proportional to salinity. However, mass loading rate (MLR) predominantly affected both the removal efficiency and the mass removal rate of AN, both of which were factors that explicitly determined seasonality. A power equation, k(V20)' alpha MLR(-n), was proposed to correct the variation of the mass loading rate in estimating k(V) and thus in designing a constructed wetland.