SBIR Phase II: Waste Water Phosphorus Removal Using Nano Enhanced Reactive Iron Media

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will continue development and commercialization of a nano-engineered high capacity sorption media for removal and recovery of phosphorous from water. This media addresses issues caused by nutrient-related pollution, which significantly affects drinking water supplies, aquatic life and recreational water quality. Phosphorus comes primarily from agriculture and waste treatment sources, including on-site generated wastewater and is the limiting nutrient that usually controls eutrophication in temperate climates. Better, low maintenance/ lower cost approaches are needed to reduce discharge levels. In Phase I, the feasibility of a high performance phosphorous removal media was demonstrated, showing a sorption capacity that is significantly greater than other media reported in the literature. The feasibility of phosphorous recovery and media regeneration was also shown. In Phase II, the sorption of the media will be improved further and will be tested in both the laboratory and as add-on tertiary systems that will be designed, fabricated and operated in the field with the help of commercialization partners. Scale up of manufacturing and regeneration processes will be examined. Successful completion will lead to a superior phosphorous removal media and data required for commercial introduction of products that are needed for wide scale commercialization into the market. The broader impacts of this research are that phosphorus originating from smaller on-site wastewater systems and water runoff from agricultural and other locations is becoming recognized as a major cause of impairment to streams and lakes and degradation of the water bodies like the Florida everglades. Efficient, low maintenance technologies are needed to reduce discharge levels and a lack of effective solutions exists today. Removing phosphorus is common at municipal wastewater treatment plants where chemical flocculation is available, but such approaches are impractical for dispersed sources of generated wastewater. Lower cost approaches are also desirable for these municipal treatment plants. This new media will have a much higher capacity and longer life. This will provide an economic alternative to mitigate the negative effects that phosphorous has on the environment and will offer ways for recovering the economic value of the phosphorous, a non-renewable resource that is necessary for food production and which is becoming limited in supply. Further development and optimization is warranted to move toward verification in field trials that will accelerate the commercial use of this new phosphorous removal technology.