Estudio comparativo de la capacidad depuradora de Phragmites Australis y Cyperus Papyrus en humedales artificiales subsuperciales de flujo vertical para el tratamiento de aguas residuales en el cantón Santa Isabel

The present investigation has as purpose, to carry out a comparative study of the purifying capacity of pollutants using two species of plants in vertical subsurface flow constructed wetlands to the treatment of domestic waste waters. The species used are Phragmitesaustralis (reed) and Cyperus Papyrus (papyrus). For this object we took a flow of the third lagoon treatment plant waste water El Guabo Santa Isabel Canton, and it was applied to two pilot scale units with continuous flow. To analyze the removal percentage through physical, chemical and biological parameters were taken samples in income and output in each of the experimental units. The results obtained in the test experiments with both species indicate that the papyrus has a greater capacity to remove pollutants such as biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia nitrogen, nitrate, phosphorus and coliforms total and fecal (E. coli); in the case of reed retains as much solid. Therefore, the species with more efficiency was the papyrus.