Investigation of Passive Phosphorus Reduction Through Use Of An Innovative Hydrogel Technology

PROJECT SUMMARYInvestigation Of Passive Phosphorus Reduction Through Use Of An Innovative HydrogelTechnologyPrincipal Investigator:Rick Johnson Applied Environmental Solutions LLCCo-Principal Investigator:Kayla Piezer Applied Environmental Solutions LLCThis project will investigate an innovative patent-pending naturally derived polysaccharidehydrogel technology to significantly reduce soluble phosphorus content in agricultural waterstreams.This investigation will accomplish the following goals:1. Confirm the ability of the identified polysaccharide hydrogel technology tosignificantly reduce soluble phosphorus content in agricultural and constructed wetlandapplications.Additionally exploration of the impact on other constituent reduction(such as nitrogen) will also be determined2. Investigate multiple polysaccharide hydrogel feedstocks with an emphasis onminimizing overall cost with maximum performance characteristics3. Identify key degradation characteristics of fully saturated hydrogel media4. Identify the reuse potential of saturated hydrogel media and post-treated water.Thiswould include the recovery of hydrogel feed stocks for possible reuse and5.Establish economics around application of the hydrogel technology; these economics toinclude annual operating costs capital costs and Net Present Value based on a 10-yearbasis for both agricultural wastewater treatment and constructed wetlands.In pursuit of the above objectives bench scale testing (1-10kg scale) will be conducted to developtime-based phosphorus removal profiles using waste streams representative of targetedapplications.Specifically anaerobic lagoon wastewater streams from poultry and swine or dairyoperations will be evaluated to develop a sensitivity to phosphorus loading.From theseevaluations the most promising candidate (based on cost and performance conclusions obtained)will be deployed in a constructed wetland application where flow gates are employed to developmultiple month field operation to validate performance.Development of a cost-effective passive phosphorus solution will support the goal of developinginnovative tools to aid in water quality improvement and conservation in agricultural andwatershed applications.