Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2017ND332B

Capturing the Lost Phosphorous by Enhanced Bioretention Cells Amended with Low-cost Adsorbents

Institute: North Dakota
Year Established: 2017 Start Date: 2017-03-01 End Date: 2018-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $6,754 Total Non-Federal Funds: $13,508

Principal Investigators: Feng Xiao

Project Summary: he runoff of phosphorus (P) from agricultural and urban lands is major contributor to the impairment of 24,403 acres of lakes of reservoirs in the North Dakota. The water recourses managers face a continuous challenge to manage P pollution in runoff and to minimize the adverse impacts of P discharge on surface water. This project proposes to develop and experiment with an innovative bioretention cells amended with low-cost iron-based materials that can strongly retain P and reduce P loadings to surface water. The specific objectives are to 1) study the adsorption of phosphate on the adsorbents in batch adsorption studies; and 2) investigate the removal of PO4-P in bioretention cells amended with the adsorbents. This project, if successful, will lead to an innovative approach for capturing P from runoff, which in turn will enhance our understanding of the interactions between PO4-P with iron-based materials and improve water sustainability and quality.