Brewery industrial wastewater treatment through mesocosm horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetland

The brewing industry discharges huge amounts of wastewater, which contains a high concentration of organic and nutrient-rich components. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the treatment performance of Horizontal-Subsurface-Flow-Constructed Wetland Systems (HSSFCWs) for brewery wastewater remediation. AmesocosmHSSFCWs was constructed and the inside of each unit was covered with high-density polyethylene and filled with gravel. The HSSFCWs were planted with Colocasia gigantean, Phragmites karka, and Canna indica while the control treatment unit was left unplanted. The HSSFCWs were operated with a hydraulic loading rate of 21.7 Lm−2 day−1 and a hydraulic residence time of 7 days. The removal efficiencies of the primary clarifier for COD, BOD5, and TSS were found to be 65.5%, 67.0%, and 98.0%, respectively. The treatment performances of the HSSFCWs with P. karka, C. gigantean and C. indica were COD 80.3%, 79.0%, and 73.6%; BOD5 75.4%, 74.0% and 73.6%; TN 84.0%, 77.0% and 64.0%; TP 71.0%, 69.0% and 63.0%; and PO43− 85.7%, 80.0% and 79.0%, respectively. Compared to the other two treatment systems, the species P. karka achieved the best treatment performance in terms of the removal of organic matter and nutrients. In general, it can be concluded that the wetland systems planted with P. karka, C. gigantean, and C. indica have the potential to remove organic matter and nutrients from brewery wastewater. Therefore, this finding is encouraging to scale up this wastewater treatment practice at an industrial level as alternative industrial wastewater remediation. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.