Wastewater is often discriminated from its negative impact to the environment, since it often contains various contaminants such as organic matter, N and P which can result in eutrophication of water systems. However, these compounds can not only be seen as waste which is just not handled properly in the right place, but are also valuable nutrients to the plants. Even though various technologies for wastewater treatment have been developed during the last decades, most of them are still focusing on the removal of these nutrients from water system by converting them into un-reusable/recoverable compounds. Moreover, wastewater generated from animals breeding systems often contains much higher contents of both N and P. A complete and adequate treatment of these high strength waste effluents before discharge normally requires very high operational cost, which might be not affordable in some undeveloped areas. Therefore, this project is trying to investigate the possibility of using constructed wetlands as low cost but effective technique for nutrients recovery and bioremediation of polluted waters.
Dr. Shubiao Wu, Associate Professor, Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark, and China Agricultural University, China. He is strongly interested in using eco-treatment systems for water pollution control since his PhD study in 2009, and is particularly interested in understanding the relationship between treatment performance and the interactions of microbial carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur cycling, as well as microbial responses within the treatment system.
Project title:
Nutrients recovery and bioremediation of polluted waters in treatment wetlands
Area of research:
Environmental science
Fellowship period:
01 Oct 2017 – 30 Sep 2020