Natural systems for water and sewage treatment

SUBTERRA –
reed bed purification system

Reed-bed purification systems are one of the eldest and most natural means of purifying sewage.

In the same way as water seeps in nature into the soil, flows along roots, is filtered by various sand- and gravel-layers, and is purified by micro-organisms.

Modern reed-bed purification systems use a combination of mechanical and biological resources to treat sewage. They are environment-friendly and effective.

Its efficiency is overwhelming and not comparable to existing other systems for sewage treatment. The flexibility and varicosity of the system will convince you, as the guaranteed effluent values do.

SUBTERRA reed bed purification systems are a perfect solution for the treatment of sewage, such as

• industrial sewage,
• special industrial sewage, such as:
  • sewage from dairies
  • sewage from wineries
  • sewage from sugar production
  • etc.
• an of course also all domestic sewage,

They can also be used as waterreactivators for constructed swimming-lakes and small swimming-pool systems. There they can help to reduce the usage of chemicals like hypochlorines.

SUBTERRA

The reed bed purification systems are called SUBTERRA because of the underground (=subterra) waste water entry. They are tried and tested, and especially in Germany, where they had been developped 1997 by Joachim Krüger Pflanzenkläranlagen GmbH, in use for a long time.

How does it work?

1. First, wastewater from toilets, kitchen and laundry flows into a collecting pit.
2. This multichamber pit is used for the sedimentation of the sludge. At regular intervals, the solids are removed manually and treated like regular garbage.
3. The liquid phase is then pumped into the subterra reed bed, where the biological treatment takes place.
4. The reed bed is made of several layers of sand and gravel. The water is distributed homogenously through the subterra pipe system. Then it filters down through the layers of sand and gravel.
5. While the water trickles down through the sand layers it is treated biologically by Microorganisms. They convert any remaining contaminants into ammonia.
6. The plants growing above convert this ammonia into nitrogen, which is essentiell to plant growth.
7. The plants use some of the water, but most of it is collected in pipes below the reed bed and pumped into a final tank.
8. From here the now cristalclear water may be used either for flushing toilets, or to water the gardens.

The SUBTERRA System is one of the best developed constructed Wetland-systems in the world.

Advantages of subterra-constructed wetlands:

• Constructed wetlands can be designed in any shape.
• Competitive prices!
• Combination of several houses into units can reduce the investment further.
• No smell or hygenic problems!
• Very high treatment efficency.
• Defined quantity per squaremeter allows control of the hydraulic load.
• Maintenance friendly!
• Low operation costs!
• Low energy consumption. Thus the use of solar power as energy source is possible and highly recommended.

See also the downloads below

The downloads are in portable document format (PDF) format. They require a helper program, such as Adobe Acrobat to be viewed. Usually such a program will be installed on your PC already. If not, you can download it here .

• Phuket Gazette March 2002 (2.6 MB)

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