Testing a pilot-scale of constructed wetlands for pharmaceutical wastewater treatment using Jordanian zeolitic tuff

A pilot scale of constructed wetlands (CWs) was designed, constructed and operated on August 2022 at pharmaceutical factory in Jordan. This pilot is aiming to remove pharmaceuticals (i.e. antibiotics) from treated industrial wastewater generated from secondary activated sludge system. Jordanian zeolitic tuff (RZT) and its modification (MRZ) were used as the wetland media in all CWs. A tidal flow constructed wetlands (TF) filled with MRZ was used for the first stage treatment followed by a horizontal subsurface flow (HSSF) filled with RZT as the second stage treatment. To date, the system was operated under the hydraulic loading rate 0.32 m/day for 75 days. The average influent concentrations of COD, TN, and TP were 286, 25, 6 mg/l respectively. The removal performance of COD, TN, and TP achieved up to 55%, 67%, and 25% in the CWs pilot. The removal of three key pharmaceutical compounds, i.e., ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, flumequine was also monitored in the pilot. Over 99% removal efficiency was achieved for ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin. However, the removal efficiency performance of flumequine achieved up to 68%. The pilot results demonstrated a promising performance for innovate nature-based solutions for pharmaceuticals removal, however, the pilot performance should be evaluated over the whole year to (four seasons).