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my future on treatment wetland systems

For several years we are developing a product that will bring an extraordinary novelty in the field of wastewater treatment and its application on a large scale. As usual, the idea is good, the industry requires, its competitors are there but our product is better, blah blah blah.
The product is based on our experience in the field of treatment wetland  and have developed a good project idea to make this system with high aesthetic value, which is applicable in many realities, both Italian and foreign, and of course with sustainable positive impact.
To continue this adventure we  search designers who want to try to produce the true aesthetic and functional innovations in the coming years (Bill Gates is investing with his Foundation a lot of dollars in sustainable sanitation); seek investors who want to invest in the water sector and of water sanitation and health care to produce wealth and good for the environment and human beings.
We do not give the indifference of native capitalists we met in the last months........ Soon we will find an open door.

Sustainable architecture in action: constructed wetland in the Gaza Strip

bouncing from site Building Green Futures an update of the TW in Gaza Strip to whom I have collaborated:


early 2012

early 2013

"These images show the growth over a 12-month span of the constructed wetland engineered by Mauro Lajo (Artecambiente) in the Kindergarden of Um Al Nasser (North part of Gaza Strip), an eco-friendly school built in 2011 by ARCO’, Mario Cucinella and the NGO Vento di Terra.

The Garden uses green plants and associated microorganisms for degradation, removal and/or reduction in the concentration of pollutants in the school’s grey waters that can thus be reused for toilet flushing and gardening. Underneath the garden lies a tank for the harvesting of rainwater. "

Building Green Futures has been following from very close the progress in the design and construction of this building, a great example of low-tech/high performance sustainable design bringing lasting benefits to people in need.

Building Green Futures (BGF) is a not-for-profit organization created by Mario Cucinella Architects to promote sustainable development through green architecture and urban regeneration. With Building Green Futures, the quality of the design work produced by MCA and its partners contributes to initiatives for social good


Using BGF as a vehicle, the resources and the experience of MCA contribute to philanthropic causes such as:

1) “Design & Build” projects in support of development programmes and humanitarian interventions;

2) Knowledge Transfer & Science Communications for dissemination of best practices on sustainable architecture and green technologies.

3) Applied Research for social innovation

a good margin of improvement...

well, welcome back from this long two weeks of holidays. I begin this 2013 with a post that explain what you must not do about a treatment wetland system. Yesterday I had lunch in a restaurant where four years ago I have design and build with a good italian company a constructed wetlands. Before sitting down at the table I went to see the system.... and the photo below show what was there. 
First of all I write you that when we finished building it we have had an idea of the local manager and we think that it wasn't the right person to manage the system. We suggent to plant some species and he has used other, we have suggested the bacis management rules and he said " I know what I have to do... ". Well, this is the result when your client is not the best.

photo 1: the inlet

 As you ccan see in the photo 1) the importance of the Artec Filtering System ( buy it at www.artecambiente.it or contact me, I can give you the details of this good solution). This wastewater came from the bath and from the kitchens. The basic design guide say that the Imhof tank and the fat-trapper must to be cleaned two time a year....but as you can see a lot of solids and other particulate arrive here in the inlet. The good role of the  filter is shown but a lot of problems are before the filter.

photo 2: the outlet

 The output shows that the wastewater has been partially treated by the wetland system, there are not solids, there are not opacity and there are not fat or foam. Well... but is is partially treated and is not a good water to be sent in a freshwater channel.

photo 3: the surface

... and the photo three shows you which is the situation above the gravel. In the beginning of the project we suggest to plant phragmites australis and iris pseudacorus .. but he chose typha (We suggest iris and phragmites because the flowering of iris is the best in this public area). After 4 years this is the result, only ten group of plants are alive. this mean that only 20% of the wetlands surface is covered by plants and only 20%  of the whole system treat the wastewater. You can image that also the treatment performace are really low. 
(no smell rise from the whole surface area, only when I opened the intet tank it smell of wastewater)

I entitled this post "a good margin of improvement...".. yes ...few operations can be done to properly manage a treatment wetlands, please do it! 
- clean the Imhof tank
- clean the fat-trapper
- use right species
-.... listen your designer..

and after the visit to the system I had wash my hand...

have a good time and happy new 2013!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Hi to all, with my post n. 100... I wish you a Merry Christmas and a big Happy New Year full of happyness and love!!!

wastewater treatment with algae...

I love the algae world and a lot of things can be done with these spectacular mico-organisms. Pharmaceutical, proteins, cosmetic... and also wastewater treatment.. yes, algae live with nitrogen and phosphorus that are common pollutants.

Copied from the http://www.oilgae.com web site I can summarize the following text:
" Algae are an important bioremediation agent, and are already being used by many wastewater facilities. The role that algae can play in wastewater remediation is however much higher than its current role.
Use of algae as the bioremediation agent enables us to solve two key problems: increased use of chemicals and high energy costs. Thus, algae-based waste water treatment is a powerful avenue for sustainable wastewater treatment.
Algae-based remediation of wastewater is not without its challenges; however, the potential is so high and the problem so critical that there are a number of research efforts - both in the academia and in the commercial sector - ongoing in order to address these challenges."
A good report can be dwnld or buyed in the oilae.com web site..

Another good reading with a literature review is here...tidskriftenvatten.se  as pdf document named "WasteWater treatment With microalgae – a literature review" written by Karin Larsdotter (School of Biotechnology,  Stockholm)

15000 visitors

Thanks a lot for your interest about treatment wetlands!!! 15000 visits are a great goal for me! Thanks to all the people that search something about vetiver and wastewater treatment (which is the most viewed post on this blog http://treatmentwetlands.blogspot.it/2011/01/vetiver-plant-and-wastewater-treatment.html within  1174 visits) and greywater reuse (http://treatmentwetlands.blogspot.it/2010/12/greywater-reuse.html) the second with 413 visits.
Thanks to the 3500 person from USA, the 644 from India, 400 from Brasil, and all the other from the 112 world countries that search something about treatment wetlands and came accross this blog!

my best regards!

Green Water ... a company in Africa

I met this company on facebook by a link of a dear friend Rob Crook.
By facebook I copy this information: "GreenWater is an environmental consultancy firm based in Mombasa, specialising in wastewater treatment, environmental advisory services, waste management and first aid training. The Company founder and director is Sarah den Haring (http://www.green-water.org)".

Here below few photos taken from their web site n fb (for more information and for the captions see their page on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/GreenWater/193329114107387) .

... while I speak some lectures...

here below a beautiful image of my presentation in Turkey last May...

me standing on the right side..(the big image is the Turkish President)

and here few photos of my presentation at the important conference about swine wastewater treatment with treatment wetlands held in Italy and organized by www.artecambiente.it. I have made two post about this project. ( fitosuini )

Tree House with treatment wetland!!!

Oh Yes, here in Italy we have a lot of problems... but also good ideas. Take a look at this good realization in north of Italy at the Azienda Agricola OASI di Davide Carlini a Certosa di Pavia (PV) where ArtecAmbiente built this special treatment wetland. This is a rural house (Agriturismo in Italian language) where you can spend your holidays and free time in the countryside... and also taste the good hand made beer produced by the howner (http://www.birrificiorurale.it).

photo from www.fitodepurazione.blogspot,com

the plant is Horizontal, 20 sq meters, planted ith juncus, typha and the beautiful lythrum salicaria.

Enjoy also the presentation video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mHLfNoXIzKY

world wetland 2012 conference IWA

Hallo Wetlanders, I remind you the important upcoming conference in Australia: WETLAND2012

13th conference on WETLAND SYSTEMS FOR WATER POLLUTION CONTROL

IWA Specialist Group on the Use of Macrophytes in Water Pollution Control 

Hosted and Organised by Murdoch University Perth, Western Australia 

in collaboration with IWA and AWA

25-29 November 2012

CONFERENCE BROCHURE available at:

http://www.promaco.com.au/events/WetlandConferenceBrocure.pdf

Description from the official web site ( http://www.promaco.com.au ):

The major aim of the Conference is to bring together researchers and professionals to discuss new evelopments and exchange experiences in the field of constructed wetland systems. The Conference will highlight the latest improvements and achievements in the treatment of urban storm water runoff, domestic and municipal wastewaters, agricultural and industrial effluents.

Conference Topics:

Process Dynamics

Management and Control

Case studies

Design criteria

Economics

Environmental issues and operation policies

CW Components

Modelling of wetland treatment processes

Systems with enhanced/active aeration

Floating emergent macrophyte wetlands

Suitability of treatment wetlands for developing countries

Removal of pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, surfactants and 

other emerging pollutants

Stormwater and industrial wastewater treatment

Mine water treatment

Combined algal systems

Wetland and waterway restoration

Non point source pollution control

Limitations and lessons to be learn

World Toilet Day - 19 November

Today is World Toilet Day which is closely tied to Millenium Development Goals number 7 that aims to halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

Around the world, 1.1 billion people defecate in the open, contaminating their environments and water sources and spreading diseases like diarrhoea, which kills 2,000 children under 5 every day. 

I think is the time to do something. 

Me and an italian colleague (Mauro Lajo of www,fitodepurazione.blogspot.com) are working to do that. We are developing two project to promote the safe sanitation and spreading the use of toilets. Contact us if you want be part of the team.

Let' go to build a treatment wetlands, let' go to build a reedbed, let's go to build a constructed wetlands... let's go to do somethings!

video of the Treatment wetlands outflow !!!

Hi, this video is made by the Company head of ArtecAmbiente srl (Mauro Lajo) in one of their treatment plant here in Italy!

Have you never seen what kind of water came out from a treatment wetlands?? this is one of the main reasons for building TWs!!! enjoy it!!!

As Mauro say in the video... "you cannot hear, it doesn't smell!!!"

treatment water wetland in south america - tratamiento de humedales en América del Sur

... and in portuguese...tratamento de água na América do Sul.
Here I post another good publication by World Bank about treatment wetland in South America. This is made under the Water and Sanitation Program in Latin American and Caribbean Region by the Regional Office for Latin America of the World Bank Office.

Here the direct link to the .pdf version: http://www.wsp.org/wsp/sites/wsp.org/files/publications/ConstructedWetlands.pdf

The book report experiences and treatment performances of TW in Latin America. Here below some photos copied by the book.

treatment wetlands and winery wastewater

Hi, here my last project design and realization by ArtecAmbiente (www.artecambiente.it). A treatment wetland for the treatment of winery wastewaters. This was made last week in Puglia, a region in the South of Italy where the red wines are sooooo gooooooooood.
This kind of "pollution" is really particular: high cod, high bod5, low pH, high volume in short time,...
TWs is the right choice also in this situation!!
Here below some photos of the realization!  .... next week they start the harvester of the grapes and the TW is ready to get the process waters!!! Yeahhh!! NO MORE POLLUTION!!!

"photo by ArtecAmbiente"

Sustainable Sanitation and treatment wetlands

Treatment wetlands are a key tool for the sustainable sanitation all over the world. Here below I post a link to a good handbook namend " Treatment Wetlands – Sustainable Sanitation Practice " by the ECO SAN club published in July 2012.

Download the full document here:
http://www.ecosan.at/ssp/issue-12-treatment-wetlands/SSP-12_Jul2012.pdf

The document is posted in the following pages:
http://sanitationupdates.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/treatment-wetlands-sustainable-sanitation-practice-july-2012/

And take a look to the home page at http://sanitationupdates.wordpress.com/ because there are a lot of useful information.

THE FLOATING TREATMENT WETLANDS

The Floating treatment System allow the wastewater treatment at water level. The wastewaters are usually treated away from the points of origin. The “on water treatment” needs specific floating elements that are vegetated with different species able to extend their roots systems in the water column.
The action of the roots is double: physical filtering of the waters and nutrients uptake. This system is easy to install and to manage during the time.
Usually the floating wetlands can tolerate high water level fluctuations typical of rivers, lakes, canals, etc.
Floating wetlands have also a beautiful aesthetic aspect!

The examples worldwide give a lot of differents ways for realize a floating wetlands. Here below few examples.

image from floating island south east  www.floatingislandse,com

floating islands louisiana

Paine Lake - New Rochelle, N.Y.

As recommended by WAC 5

11th International Conference on Wetland Systems for Water Pollution Control - Floating Treatment Wetlands: an Innovative Option for Stormwater Quality Applications T. R. Headley, C.C. Tanner

Italian tech-ia system floating wetland. underwater roots development

Italian techia system. roots developmemt 

ILVA TARANTO

As you know in Taranto in the South of Italy there is one of the biggest european steel-metal factory (ILVA - Taranto). After many years of strange-trouble management of metal production the italian judgement system start a process to close the factory because during the years they had caused a lot of environmental pollution and human health deseases....
Now United Europe and the board of Ilva will start to finance the improvement  of the production in order to realize a green steel factory !!! 

Also treatment wetland could be used to ameliorate these kind of factory: roofs and floors runoff waters... etc could be trapped and treated! and finally you can obtain treated waters that could be reused in the steel production!

if you are an investor and have in mind that treatment wetland could be the right solution  to do that contact me !

 http://www.google.it/imgres?hl=it&sa=X&biw=1366&bih=624&tbm=isch&prmd=imvnsu&tbnid=NK-fUAIV4MVILM:&imgrefurl=http://www.ogginotizie.it/

http://www.google.it/imgres?hl=it&sa=X&biw=1366&bih=624&tbm=isch&prmd=imvnsu&tbnid=d-w-SNa5E1aNSM:&imgrefurl=http://www.epomeo.com

natural wetlands

I'm here in Austria and I found a lot of natural wetlands at 1900, 2300, and more meters above sea level  .... sometime I forget that everything start from these! As stated by the RAMSAR CONVENTION (www.ramsar.org) wetlands are areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres ... in particular are also a natural humid environment where water, plants and soil stay together, live together, change and evolve depending on climate, hydology, human impact (see my mountain bike's rear  wheel) etc... enjoy the images below with juncus (the green), eryophorum (the white plume), orchys (the violet), and the carnivorous pinguicola (the pale green) found here in Austria in the area of Fiss:

Wetland conference in Japan

Seventh constructed wetlands workshop is going to be held from 27th to 28th
August in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture Japan.
Join it!!!!

news from my holidays.....develop an innovative treatment wetlands!!!

hi, I have received an important request from an international company to develop an innovative system in the field of the treatment wetland applications.

Please if you are a POSSIBLE INVESTOR  contact me I'll put you in contact with this company!

back soon!!!

hi, I'll be back as soon as possible with a lot of news and ideas about treatment wetlands world!!!

Wetland conference In Italy

the vice-president of the Ticino Park have said: "treatment wetland is the future".

43000 m3/d in 240Ha ... is this a treatment wetlands?

YES, is a treatment wetlands... wow!!! fantastic!!! 43000 cubic meter a day in 240 hectares.. is this the biggest treatment wetlands in the world?  As wrote in the article "REPORT FROM THE MIDDLE EAST REGION: LARGE-SCALE TREATMENT OF OILFIELD PRODUCED WATER USING WETLANDS IN OMAN" by Dr. Tom Headley and Dr. Roman Breuer published in IWA Specialist Group on Use of Macrophytes in Water Pollution Control: Newsletter No. 39, various full and pilot-scale treatment wetland projects have been realised in recent years for treatment of sewage and sludges in Oman, Qatar, the UAE and Jordan. Wetlands are also playing an important role in treating industrial wastewaters on a large scale, such as the 600 ha wetland+pond system  that was designed and built for treating residual water from an oil field in Oman.
They recover oil, they save energy for water treatment with traditional systems, they create new environment in arid climate zone, they save below ground aquifer...

They also win the "2011 water global awards"

the vetiver network....a fantastic web site

The vetiver network is a really fantastic web environment.. you can find and ask everything you're searching about this plant species and his application for water treatment.

This is the link for Vetiver Systems for Waste Water Improvement and Other Related Water Quality Issues : http://www.vetiver.org/discus/messages/16/16.html and there are at least 30 discussion links related to vetiver and water purification such us for example.
- Effluent pond treatment using vetiver grass:  http://www.vetiver.org/discus/messages/16/778.html?1255777325
- Basic household system: http://www.vetiver.org/discus/messages/16/1057.html?1211996863
-Vetiver for Sewage treatment in Australi:a http://www.vetiver.org/discus/messages/16/492.html?1141668160

... and many others!!!


thanks vetiver!!!

a thought arise from an article of National Geographic:

In the last NG magazine of June there is an interesting article about solar storms written by Timothy Ferris:

Sun Struck - The space-weather forecast for the next few years: solar storms, with a chance of catastrophic blackouts on Earth. Are we prepared?

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/06/solar-storms/nasa-photography

<A Carrington-class storm could fry more transformers than the power companies keep stockpiled, leaving millions without light, potable water, sewage treatment, heating, air-conditioning, fuel, telephone service, or perishable food and medications during the months it would take to manufacture and install new transformers. A recent National Academy of Sciences report estimates that such a storm could wreak the economic disruption of 20 Katrina-class hurricanes, costing one to two trillion dollars in the first year alone and taking a decade to recover from.

“We cannot predict what the sun will do more than a few days ahead of time,” laments Karel Schrijver of Lockheed Martin’s Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory in Palo Alto, California. 
(full text and video at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/06/solar-storms/ferris-text).>>


In the underliner text you can read that everything that works with energy input may have problems.. also traditional sewage treatment!!!
Well, usually treatment wetlands do not have problems because the energy input is very limited!!! an horizontal flow bed doesn't require energy or pumps for his functioning... a vertical bed could be feeded with a mechanical syphoon!!!