Removal of Nutrients from Agricultural Drainage Water using Nano-Engineered Porous Ceramic Media

Abstract. Drainage practices that enable surface and subsurface agricultural water management to increase crop productivity may increase the transport of nutrients to receiving waters. Residual phosphorus and nitrogen can leach from the soil profile by subsurface water movement and be carried into surface water through tiles. This research examined nutrient removal from agricultural drainage water using microbial nitrification/denitrification and phosphorus sorption. To simulate agricultural drainage water, 208 L drums were filled with a loamy soil, slurry manure was applied to the surface, water was added to simulate rainfall, and effluent, was collected from the bottom of the drums. The treatment columns for phosphorus sorption consisted of two 2.54 cm diameter PVC columns containing porous ceramic media nano coated with iron formed into a monolith, manufactured by MetaMateria Technologies, LLC, Columbus, Ohio. The denitrification columns were 5.1 cm diameter PVC buckets containing loosely packed porous ceramic media (manufactured from MetaMateria) crushed to have a diameter of roughly 1 cm. Results showed that the phosphorus media effectively removed phosphorus from simulated tile drain water from 0.12 mg/L-P to undetectable levels. Initially, denitrification did not occur and was not encouraged by the additional of a microbial inoculum. However, once ethanol was added to increase the carbon to nitrogen ratio, treatment was very effective. The nitrate was reduced from 83 mg/L-N to 0.6 mg/L-N.