Heiti verkefnis : 

Nýting endurunnins byggingarúrgangs í undirlag fyrir votlendi til að fjarlægja mengunarefni í köldu loftslagi

Verkefnastjóri : 

Bing Wu, Hrund Ólöf Andradóttir

Stutt lýsing á verkefninu:

Iceland has a large number of inland wetlands with unique natural features. Wetlands not only function as a vital part of the ecosystem, but also perform as cost-effective and eco-friendly decentralized wastewater treatment systems, in which natural systems are utilized to remove pollutants via adsorption, biodegradation and plant uptake. In these years, Vegagerðin has put great efforts on wetland restoration in order to minimize disturbance by road construction. This provides us with an opportunity to design and modify the wetlands with multi-function roles during their restoration.

In wetlands, substrate materials are important components as they offer active binding sites for microbial growth and support aquatic plants. In recent years, recycled aggregates from construction and demolition wastes have shown their great potential as the substrate of wetlands due to their relatively low density, great water absorption, and high porosity. The use of low-cost recycled aggregates in wetlands would benefit for saving natural geological resources, reducing the adverse effects of waste disposal, minimizing carbon footprint of construction materials, and enhancing nutrient removal due to improved adsorption efficiency.However, there lacks of practical investigation on recycled aggregates-based constructed wetlands, especially relating to pollutant removals from complex wastewater matrix in cold climate. In this project, we aim to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of constructed wetlands using recycled construction and demolition wastes as substrates under Icelandic scenario. This research work fits to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, SDG 6 “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”, SDG 9 “Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”, and SDG 11 “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable ”.

Tilgangur og markmið:

This project aims to provide an alternative technical-feasible, economic-beneficial, and environmentally-friendly solution on Icelandic wetland restoration, accompanying with recycling wastes and mitigating pollutants in environments. In detail, recycled aggregates-based constructed wetlands are proposed and the pollutant (such as organics, nitrogen, phosphorus, micropollutants) removal efficiencies in the wetlands are experimentally evaluated under various design and operation parameters. The life cycle assessment on recycled aggregates-based constructed wetlands is performed to identify the key environmental impacts.

This project targets to provide solutions for three research questions: (1) using recycled construction and demolition wastes as wetland substrate is technical, economic, and environmental feasible in Iceland? (2) to what extend are pollutant removal efficiencies achieved in the recycled aggregates-based constructed wetlands in cold climate? (3) What design and operation parameters are associated with pollutant removals in the recycled aggregates-based constructed wetlands in cold climate? The knowledge obtained in this project allows us to further scale-up recycled aggregates-based constructed wetlands under Icelandic scenarios.