Opportunities for closed cycles with treatment wetlands: off-grid leachate treatment.

DOTRO, G; NOCETTI, E; JEFFERSON, B; MAINE, M.A.; VRANCKEN, C; LONGHURST, P; ITURRIA, M

Simposio; ? Symposium Closed Cycles and the circular society.The power of ecological engineering; 2020

Treatment wetlands are low carbon, cost-effective technologies for the improvement of water quality and a long list of associated co-benefits ranging from environmental (biodiversity, habitat creation), social (education, recreation, wellbeing), and financial (lower whole life costs than grey alternatives). In many cases the topography of a site can enable these systems to operate with zero electricity inputs. However, when the terrain does not allow or the site is too remote and has no access to the electricity grid, external inputs are required and this can be a barrier to their implementation due to increased costs and associate carbon emissions. In addition, for some applications, like landfill leachate treatment or land-constrained rural sewage works, intensification of the technology with artificial aeration is needed in order to deliver water quality improvements in compact footprints. This session will focus on a case study funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (UK) for feasibility design of off-grid flowsheet with intensified treatment wetlands to illustrate the challenges and opportunities of such an approach. Attendees will work together to explore the barriers for wider implementation and potential enablers, alongside proposing recommendations for flowsheet or technology selection improvements.