USIMINAS Wetlands Wastewater Treatment Plant | Sanitary Effluents

The company Wetlands Construídos has been developing an R&D (research and development) partnership over the past few years for the use of steelmaking aggregate as a filter medium in constructed wetland systems within the concept of Sustainable Wastewater Treatment Plants. As a result of this relationship, an experimental apparatus was implemented at the SENAI-FIEMG Innovation and Technology Center. The objective of this study was to demonstrate the performance of vertical flow constructed wetlands in removing the main parameters related to wastewater treatment, comparing a support medium made of steelmaking aggregate and another made of common aggregate (gneiss aggregate). The results demonstrated the competence of steelmaking aggregates and a similarity to gneiss aggregate for the treatment of sanitary sewage, corroborating several similar studies already developed with materials from different steel industries around the world.

As a result of this study, the proposal in question emerged, to implement the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) within the premises of the USIMINAS headquarters building, consolidating, on a real scale, the concept validated in the experimental setup. The implementation aims to be a benchmark model for other sustainable wastewater treatment projects, employing concepts of landscape integration, circular economy (use of aggregate and sustainable sludge management), reduction of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, simplicity and reduction of operating costs, among other technical, economic and environmental benefits.