Constructed Wetland for the Treatment of Brewery Wastewater: Performance evaluation

Environmentally friendly way of handling industrial effluents is the most important concept for industries direct and/or indirect contribution of a country’s sustainable development. In order to achieve such goals biological processes considered to play the major role. The study to evaluate the treatment performance of horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetland (SSFCW) systems planted with selected emergent wetland plants for the removal of pollutants from brewery wastewater was initiated. For this purpose the treatment plant was fed with raw brewery wastewater collected from St. George Beer Industry of Ethiopia. The constructed wetland for wastewater treatment was operated for six months (August, 18/2010 to February, 20/2011).The four SSFCWs cells packed with gravel media and with HRT of 7 days. One bed was left unplanted and used as a control while each of the remaining beds was planted with Cana. indica, Phragmite. karka and Colocasia. gigantea to each unit. Each set of SSFCW cells had influent parameters such as hydraulic loading rates of 26 L/d with high-strength 4798 mg COD/L and 1714 mg BOD5/L from brewery wastewater.