On April 26, AEU Club successfully held a teleconference for teams of young scientists from Russia and Vietnam, where Dr. Philippe Michel, founder of SCIRPE Company delivered a lecture on the principles wastewater treatment with reed beds (constructed wetlands).
In the introductory part of his speech, Dr. Michel pointed out that constructed wetlands system is extensive and plants reproduce the same natural degradation processes that occurs on grounds, talked about the comparison with intensive systems. He also touched upon the origin and development of constructed wetland technology.
Further, Dr. Michel described in detail the working principles of several adaptation of constructed wetlands. Horizontal filters do not treat raw water but settled water or pretreated water on a vertical Filter. The horizontal filtration ensures an optimal retention of pollutants by increase of the stay time in the system. The creation of anoxic zones and the predominance of denitrification are important distinctive features of this system. The vertical flow system or French common system is fed with raw water and combines two vertical flow treatment stages. It ensures an advanced degradation of pollutants due to aerobic processes and high level of nitrification.
In the next part of the presentation, the speaker focused on the SCIRPE’s patented innovative flush system. SCIRPE has developed an automatic flushing system, which generates the necessary inflow for a good water distribution onto the filters surface. Examples of using this vertical flow system using field slope were also given.
An important emphasis was placed on the working principle of reed bed filters. In particular, the role of reeds: perforation, drainage, filtration of waters and boosting of microbiological activity. Attention was also paid to the vertical flow system with pumping stations, quality of the discharged water and dewatering system.
In conclusion, Dr. Michel drew attention to two schemes of wastewater treatment plant of Maizilly – 220 population equivalent and wastewater treatment plant of St Paul de Varrax – 2500 population equivalent.
This was followed by a productive discussion and team members had a chance to ask the speaker many questions .
On April 28, in the framework of the project on teleconferences, Dr. Frank Van Dien, General Management, ECOFYT, Netherlands, is presenting a lecture on working principles of Constructed Wetlands system for the student teams from Indonesia and Philippine.
