DISCUSSION ON AROMATIC COMPOUNDS REMOVAL PATHWAYS IN CONSTRUCTED WETLAND

Aromatic compounds，which will cause serious harms to human beings，are a group of persistent organic pollutants ( POPs) ． At present，the high cost of the advanced aromatic compounds processing technologies makes the large-scale application of the technologies impossible． Constructed wetlands，which have the advantage of low-cost in construction，lowenergy in operation and easy maintenance，are attracting great concern on their capability of removing aromatic compounds from wastewater． This paper presented a review of current research situation and mechanism of aromatic compounds removal in the constructed wetlands，in which the substrates，plants and microorganism played the significant roles，while the hydrolysis， photodegradation，and volatilization were not major removal processes for most organic compounds． Therefore，future studies is probably to select the appropriate substrates and plants，gain an insight into the coupling mechanism of substrates，plants and microorganism，avoid short circuits as far as possible，obtain optimal contaminant-root contact，optimize the physico-chemical conditions in the rhizosphere，and enhance the microorganism activities to get higher removal efficiency．