Estudio de remoción de cafeína de aguas sintéticas utilizando humedales subsuperficiales de flujo vertical : Estudio de la remoción de cafeína mediante el uso de humedales subsuperficiales de flujo vertical utilizando bagazo de caña como medio de soporte.

Abstract

Caffeine, a common alkaloid in the diet and personal products of humans, is one of the most consumed emerging contaminants (EC) worldwide. The lack of specific treatments for its removal in water treatment plants has caused its high presence in several water bodies, both surface and underground. This study seeks to evaluate the efficiency of artificial wetlands as a treatment, and sugarcane bagasse as substrate, for the removal of caffeine and other parameters (BOD5, COD, TSS and Turbidity) from artificial wastewater. The study began by determining the ideal plant species to be used in wetlands through toxicological tests on indoor ornamental species: Dracaena reflexa, Dracaena Fragrans and Chlorophytum comosum. Subsequently, four wetlands were built, two with the selected plant from the toxicological tests and two in its absence, which serve as control to determine the influence of the plant on the removal. Two hydraulic retention times of 1 hour and 24 hours were tested, and a statistical analysis was performed to identify significant differences between the wetlands. The study showed that, although there is caffeine removal after passing through the wetlands, the influence of vegetation on this removal is not significant. However, good removal of the other parameters was not obtained, except for TSS. In addition, it was shown that a shorter hydraulic retention time increases efficiency. In conclusion, this treatment is efficient for caffeine removal, but has limitations with other physicochemical parameters.