Constructed wetlands operated as bioelectrochemical systems for the removal of organic micropollutants

The removal of organic micropollutants (OMPs) has been investigated in constructed wetlands (CWs) operated as bioelectrochemical systems (BES). operation CWs BES (CW-BES), either the form microbial fuel cells (MFC) or electrolysis (MEC), only recent years. presented experiment used CW meso-scale applying a realistic horizontal flow regime and continuous feeding real urban wastewater spiked with four OMPs (pharmaceuticals), namely carbamazepine (CBZ), diclofenac (DCF), ibuprofen (IBU) naproxen (NPX). study evaluated efficiency conventional (CW-control) well closed-circuit MFCs (CW-MFCs) MECs (CW-MECs). Although few positive trends were identified for CW-BES compared to CW-control (higher average CBZ, DCF NPX by 10–17% CW-MEC 5% CW-MFC), these proved be not statistically significantly different. Mesoscale experiments could thus confirm earlier effects found under strictly controlled laboratory conditions synthetic wastewaters.