Proceedings

The UK market value for protected vegetable production (those cultivated undercover) is currently c. £356M with > 300K tonnes produced annually 1. Production sites are often located in rural locations using agricultural and cultivation processes that generate substantial quantities of process wastewater. Wastewaters are typically characterised by high TSS and relatively high BOD5 and NH3 loads. Additional complexities of the wastewaters may exist in the form of tannin leeching from peat-based composts and poultry manure growing mediums and chlorine inputs from equipment sterilisation which provide unique treatment challenges. If released into the surrounding environment without prior appropriate treatment, these effluent streams can cause detrimental environmental impacts to aquatic ecosystems. Passive or low power treatment processes characterised by limited operator intervention requirements and low operational requirements and expenditure (OPEX) are increasingly being used to manage the wastewaters generated by increased production requirements and more stringent discharge limits. In this study, we evaluate the performance of a saturated vertical flow (SVF) artificially aerated wetland for the treatment of Mushroom Process waste water. The system has been operational since June 2018 following a major refurbishment and re-engineering project.