Modeling and mitigation of denitrification ‘woodchip’ bioreactor phosphorus releases during treatment of aquaculture wastewater

Sharrer, Kata; Christianson, Laura E.; Lepine, Christine; Summerfelt, Steven T.

doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2016.05.019

Cited by 45 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…On average, there was a miniscule net removal of phosphorus at sites 2 and 3, and the capability of these wood-based bioreactors to remove smaller amounts of phosphates is consistent with previous woodchip bioreactor studies (e.g., Schipper et al, 2010a;Warneke et al, 2011;Sharrer et al, 2016). In contrast, a net production of dissolved phosphorus at site 1 was probably caused by the longer retention time and nitrate-limited conditions triggering other types of respiratory processes in the bioreactor.…”

Section: Organic Matter and Nutrient Leachingsupporting

confidence: 87%

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Performance of full-scale woodchip bioreactors treating effluents from commercial RAS

Ahnen

Pedersen

Dalsgaard

2018

Aquacultural Engineering

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The aquaculture industry needs new cost-effective solutions for removing effluent nitrogen to reduce their environmental impact. Recent studies have shown that laboratory and pilot-scale woodchip bioreactors can remove nitrate from aquaculture effluent. Encouraged by these results, several Danish fish farmers recently constructed commercial scale woodchip bioreactors prior to-or integrated into existing free water surface constructed wetlands without knowing the effects of design and upscaling on removal performance. The objective of the current study was to monitor initial performance (first 28-52 weeks of operation) of three such custom-designed denitrifying woodchip bioreactors installed in fullscale (350, 650, and 1250 m 3 woodchips) for effluent treatment at three commercial recirculated rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) farms. All three woodchip bioreactors removed nitrogen (essentially nitrate-nitrogen) continuously from the start and at relatively stable rates (5.3-8.5 g N/m 3 /d; 4.5-7.8 g NO3-N/m 3 /d) during the investigation period. Leaching of dissolved organic matter continued for up to half a year whereas there was no similar leaching of dissolved phosphorus. A net production of dissolved organic matter was observed under nitrate-limited conditions in one of the bioreactors characterized by a loading of 5.5 compared to 16.4-16.8 g NO3-N/m 3 /d at the other sites, and an empty bed contact time (EBCT) of 26 h compared to 15-16 h at the other sites. An increase in water level difference between inlet and outlet indicated that accumulation of particulate organic matter and associated bacterial growth may lead to head loss potentially reducing the long-term performance of the bioreactors. In conclusion, the study confirms that woodchip bioreactors can be applied at full-scale for removing NO3-N from fish farm effluent. Woodchip bioreactors should be designed to minimize head loss and the risk of clogging, and loading and retention time should ensure that denitrifiers do not become nitrate-limited.

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Section: Organic Matter and Nutrient Leachingsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…When observed, leaching of phosphorus does typically not last as long as leaching of organic matter, and the most rapid release seems to happen during the first 24 h (Sharrer et al, 2016;von Ahnen et al, 2016b).…”

Section: Organic Matter and Nutrient Leachingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance of full-scale woodchip bioreactors treating effluents from commercial RAS

Ahnen

Pedersen

Dalsgaard

2018

Aquacultural Engineering

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“…Saliling et al (2007) also showed that woodchips are suitable as a reactor media but estimated that their expected life span was only up to 1 year. Later, a life span of over 10 years has been estimated for similar purposes (Sharrer et al 2016), while 5-15 years has also been reported due to slow degradation of woodchips under anoxic conditions (Schipper et al 2010a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…High nitrate concentrations (> 100 mg L −1 NO 3 -N, Chen et al 2002) can be harmful for the raised species but also potentially lead to eutrophication of the receiving waters if released untreated. Eutrophication of water bodies is globally a severe problem (Sharrer et al 2016). It has been estimated that annual economic losses due to eutrophication is over 2.2 billion US dollars (Dodds et al 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water quality in recirculating aquaculture system using woodchip denitrification and slow sand filtration

Lindholm‐Lehto

Pulkkinen

Kiuru

et al. 2020

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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In recirculating aquaculture system (RAS), ammonium excreted by the fish is typically transformed to less toxic nitrate by microbial activity in bioreactors. However, nitrate-nitrogen load can be harmful for the receiving water body when released from the RAS facility. A new type of water treatment system for a RAS was designed, including a passive woodchip denitrification followed by a sand filtration introduced into a side-loop of an experimental RAS, rearing rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). In the process, woodchips acted as a carbon source for the denitrification, aiming at a simultaneous nitrogen removal and reduction of water consumption while sand filtration was used to remove organic matter and recondition the circulating water. A variety of chemical analyses and toxicological tests were performed to study the suitability of the process and to ensure the absence of harmful or toxic substances in the system. The results did not show increased toxicity, and no increased mortality was reported for the raised species. After the start-up of the system, the concentrations of fatty acids (e.g., hexadecanoic acid

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“…Phosphorus concentrations in both the Ridgely Farm bioreactor inflow and outflow were nearly always higher than concentrations known to impair freshwater (0.03 mg TP/L; Figure 4c,d) [26]. Flushing of phosphorous has been observed during start-up at other bioreactors [18,27], but concentrations as high as seen here are likely related to the farm characteristics (see above). Nevertheless, there was a statistically significant difference between bioreactor inflow and outflow phosphate concentrations, but no overall significant impact on total phosphorus concentrations when assessed over the entire monitoring period (Table 3; PO 4 p = 0.004; TP p = 0.097).…”

Section: Ridgely Farm Bioreactormentioning

confidence: 74%

Performance of Denitrifying Bioreactors at Reducing Agricultural Nitrogen Pollution in a Humid Subtropical Coastal Plain Climate

Rosen

Christianson

2017

Water

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Abstract:Denitrifying bioreactors are an agricultural best management practice developed in the midwestern United States to treat agricultural drainage water enriched with nitrate-nitrogen (NO 3 -N). The practice is spreading rapidly to agricultural regions with poor water quality due to nutrient enrichment. This makes it imperative to track bioreactor NO 3 -N reduction efficiency as this practice gets deployed to new regions. This study evaluated the application and performance of denitrifying bioreactors in the humid subtropical coastal plain environment of the Chesapeake Bay catchment to provide data about regionally specific NO 3 -N reduction efficiencies. NO 3 -N samples were taken before and after treatment at three denitrifying bioreactors, in addition to other nutrients (orthophosphate-phosphorus, PO 4 -P; ammonium-nitrogen, NH 4 -N; total nitrogen, TN; total phosphorus, TP) and water quality parameters (dissolved oxygen, DO; oxidation reduction potential, ORP; pH; specific conductance, SPC). Total removal ranged drastically between bioreactors from 10 to 133 kg N, with removal efficiencies of 9.0% to 62% and N removal rates of 0.21 to 5.36 g N removed per m 3 of bioreactor per day. As the first bioreactor study in the humid subtropical coastal plain, this data provides positive proof of concept that denitrifying bioreactor is another tool for reducing N loads in agricultural tile drainage in this region.

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Modeling and mitigation of denitrification ‘woodchip’ bioreactor phosphorus releases during treatment of aquaculture wastewater

Cited by 45 publications

References 23 publications

Performance of full-scale woodchip bioreactors treating effluents from commercial RAS

Performance of full-scale woodchip bioreactors treating effluents from commercial RAS

Water quality in recirculating aquaculture system using woodchip denitrification and slow sand filtration

Performance of Denitrifying Bioreactors at Reducing Agricultural Nitrogen Pollution in a Humid Subtropical Coastal Plain Climate

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