title: Removal of nonionic surfactants from wastewater using a constructed wetland.
abstract: Removal of nonionic surfactants from municipal wastewater using a constructed wetland with a horizontal subsurface flow was studied in 2009 and 2010. Extraction spectrophotometry with 3',3″,5',5″-tetrabromophenolphthalein ethyl ester and KCl served to determine the analyte concentrations. Triton(®)  X-100 was used as a standard to express the nonionic-surfactant concentrations. Anionic and cationic surfactants were shown not to interfere during the determination. Nonionic surfactants were degraded (to products undeterminable by the method) with a high average efficiency that reached 98.1% in 2009 and 99.1% in 2010, respectively. The average concentration of nonionic surfactants at the inflow was 0.978 mg/l, while it was close to the limit of quantification at the outflow (0.014 mg/l). A significant fraction of nonionic surfactants (38.7%) was already degraded during the pretreatment, and only 14.0% of the nonionic surfactants remained in the interstitial H(2) O taken in the vegetation bed at a distance of 1 m from the inflow zone at a 50-cm depth. Nonionic surfactants were degraded both under aerobic and anaerobic conditions.
authors: Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Bohemia, Faculty of Science, Branišovská 31, CZ-37005, České Budějovice. sima@prf.jcu.cz
authors: Jan
authors: J
authors: Síma
authors: Veronika
authors: V
authors: Holcová
mesh_terms: D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation / Q000379:methods*; D017830:Octoxynol / Q000302:isolation & purification; D058441:Rhizosphere; D013501:Surface-Active Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*; D053833:Wetlands
chemical_list: D013501:Surface-Active Agents; D017830:Octoxynol