Modeling and Calibration of Drainage Denitrification Bioreactor Design Criteria
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 9
Abstract
Design methods for agricultural drainage denitrification bioreactors must be optimized for these novel systems to provide maximized water quality improvement. The objective of this paper was to further develop science-based bioreactor sizing guidelines by calibrating an existing design procedure with multiple years of drainage flow data collected at two sites in Iowa. The models created for the two hypothetical bioreactor sites showed the original design criteria (use of a design flow rate one-fifth of the peak flow rate) generally allowed simulated bioreactor treatment of the majority of total annual drainage volume, but treatment of this majority was not necessary to maximize nitrate removal. Larger bioreactors resulting from use of either increased design flow rate or higher design retention time increased the extent of nitrate removal, but had lower nitrate removal rates. This modeled simulation analysis informs that bioreactor design procedures considering flow rate and retention time should use design flow rates of 10 to 20% of the anticipated peak flow rate at design retention times of 6 to 8 h, thus updating and refining the original design procedure. This approach produces bioreactors of increased length to width ratios, with improved performance based on nitrate removal extent and removal rate. Further field-scale validation is suggested for this drainage bioreactor design procedure.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This project was supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant No. 2011-67011-30648 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture.
References
Agri Drain Corporation. (2012). “Inline water level control structure™.” 〈http://www.agridrain.com/watercontrolproductsinline.asp〉 (Nov. 6, 2012).
Agricultural Drainage Management Coalition (ADMC). (2012). “Drainage water management for Midwestern row crop agriculture (Conservation Innovation Grant 68-3A75-6-11).” 〈http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb1042972.pdf〉 (Nov. 6, 2012).
Baker, D. B., Richards, R. P., Loftus, T. T., and Kramer, J. W. (2004). “A new flashiness index: Characteristics and applications to midwestern rivers and streams.” J. Am. Water Res. Assoc., 40(2), 503–522.
Cameron, S. G., and Schipper, L. A. (2011). “Evaluation of passive solar heating and alternative flow regimes on nitrate removal in denitrification beds.” Ecol. Eng., 37(8), 1195–1204.
Christianson, L. (2011). “Design and performance of denitrification bioreactors for agricultural drainage.” Ph.D. dissertation, Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA.
Christianson, L., Bhandari, A., and Helmers, M. (2011a) “Potential design methodology for agricultural drainage denitrification bioreactors.” Proc., EWRI Congress, ASCE, Reston, VA.
Christianson, L., Castelló, A., Christianson, R., Helmers, M., and Bhandari, A. (2010). “Technical note: Hydraulic property determination of denitrifying bioreactor fill media.” Appl. Eng. Agric., 26(5), 849–854.
Christianson, L., and Helmers, M. (2011). “Woodchip bioreactors for nitrate in agricultural drainage (PMR 1008).” Iowa State Univ. Extension, 〈https://store.extension.iastate.edu/ItemDetail.aspx?ProductID=13691〉 (Nov. 6, 2012).
Christianson, L., Helmers, M., and Bhandari, A. (2012a). “A practice-oriented review of woodchip bioreactors for subsurface agricultural drainage.” Appl. Eng. Agric., 28(6), 861–874.
Christianson, L., Helmers, M., Bhandari, A., Kult, K., Sutphin, T., and Wolf, R. (2012b). “Performance evaluation of four field-scale agricultural drainage denitrification bioreactors in Iowa.” Trans. ASABE, 55(6), 2163–2174.
Christianson, L., Helmers, M., Bhandari, A., and Moorman, T. (2013). “Internal hydraulics of an agricultural drainage denitrification bioreactor.” Ecol. Eng., 52, 298–307.
Christianson, L. E., Bhandari, A., and Helmers, M. J. (2011b). “Pilot-scale evaluation of denitrification drainage bioreactors: Reactor geometry and performance.” J. Environ. Eng., 137(4), 213–220.
Chun, J. A., Cooke, R. A., Eheart, J. W., and Cho, J. (2010). “Estimation of flow and transport parameters for woodchip-based bioreactors: II. Field-scale bioreactor.” Biosystems. Eng., 105(1), 95–102.
David, M. B., Drinkwater, L. E., and McIsaac, G. F. (2010). “Sources of nitrate yields in the Mississippi River Basin.” J. Environ. Qual., 39(5), 1657–1667.
Fausey, N., Brown, L., Belcher, H., and Kanwar, R. (1995). “Drainage and water quality in Great Lakes and cornbelt states.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 121(4), 283–288.
Halich, G. (2012). “Custom machinery rates applicable to Kentucky (2012) AEC 2012-03.” Univ. of Kentucky College of Agriculure Cooperative Extension Service, 〈http://www.ca.uky.edu/cmspubsclass/files/CustomRatesKentucky2012.pdf〉 (Nov. 6, 2012).
Hay, C., and Kjaersgaard, J. (2012). “Bioreactors for drainage water treatment.” South Dakota State Univ. Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, 〈http://www.sdstate.edu/abe/wri/research-projects/upload/BioreactorsForDrainageWaterTreatment.pdf〉 (Nov. 6, 2012).
Healy, M. G., Ibrahim, T. G., Lanigan, G. J., Serrenho, A. J., and Fenton, O. (2012). “Nitrate removal rate, efficiency and pollution swapping potential of different organic carbon media in laboratory denitrification bioreactors.” Ecol. Eng., 40(0), 198–209.
Long, L. M., Schipper, L. A., and Bruesewitz, D. A. (2011). “Long-term nitrate removal in a denitrification wall.” Agric. Ecosyst. Environ., 140(3–4), 514–520.
Maidment, D. R. (1993). Handbook of hydrology, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Metcalf and Eddy. (2003). Wastewater engineering treatment and reuse, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Moorman, T. B., Parkin, T. B., Kaspar, T. C., and Jaynes, D. B. (2010). “Denitrification activity, wood loss, and emissions over 9 years from a wood chip bioreactor.” Ecol. Eng., 36(11), 1567–1574.
Persson, J., Somes, N. L. G., and Wong, T. H. F. (1999). “Hydraulics efficiency of constructed wetlands and ponds.” Water Sci. Technol., 40(3), 291–300.
Ritter, W., Rudra, R., Milburn, P., and Prasher, S. (1995). “Drainage and water quality in northern United States and eastern Canada.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 121(4), 296–301.
Schipper, L. A., Robertson, W. D., Gold, A. J., Jaynes, D. B., and Cameron, S. C. (2010). “Denitrifying bioreactors—An approach for reducing nitrate loads to receiving waters.” Ecol. Eng., 36(11), 1532–1543.
Shih, R., Robertson, W. D., Schiff, S. L., and Rudolph, D. L. (2011). “Nitrate controls methyl mercury production in a streambed bioreactor.” J. Environ. Qual., 40(5), 1586–1592.
Thackston, E. L., Douglas, F., Shields, J., and Schroeder, P. R. (1987). “Residence time distributions of shallow basins.” J. Environ. Eng., 113(6), 1319–1332.
Univ. of Illinois. (2011). “Designing and constructing bioreactors to reduce nitrate loss from subsurface drains.” Dept. of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, 〈http://www.wq.illinois.edu/dg/Equations/trifold_Bioreactor.pdf〉 (Nov. 6, 2012).
Univ. of Minnesota Extension, and Minnesota Dept. of Agriculture. (2011). “Woodchip bioreactors.” 〈http://www.ellingsoncompanies.com/services/documents/WoodchipBioreactors.pdf〉 (Nov. 6, 2012).
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. (2009). “Natural Resources Conservation Service conservation practice standard denitrifying bioreactor interim code 747.” 〈http://efotg.sc.egov.usda.gov/references/public/IA/Denitrifying_Bioreactor_747_STD_2009_10_Interim.pdf〉 (Nov. 6, 2012).
Van Driel, P. W., Robertson, W. D., and Merkley, L. C. (2006). “Denitrification of agricultural drainage using wood-based reactors.” Trans. ASABE, 49(2), 565–573.
Verma, S., Bhattarai, R., Cooke, R., Chun, J. A., and Goodwin, G. E. (2010). “Evaluation of conservation drainage systems in Illinois—Bioreactors.” Proc., ASABE Annual Int. Meeting, American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, MI.
Warneke, S., Schipper, L. A., Bruesewitz, D. A., McDonald, I., and Cameron, S. (2011). “Rates, controls and potential adverse effects of nitrate removal in a denitrification bed.” Ecol. Eng., 37(3), 511–522.
Wildman, T. A. (2001). “Design of field-scale bioreactors for bioremediation of nitrate in tile drainage effluent.” M.S. thesis, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL.
Woli, K. P., David, M. B., Cooke, R. A., McIsaac, G. F., and Mitchell, C. A. (2010). “Nitrogen balance in and export from agricultural fields associated with controlled drainage systems and denitrifying bioreactors.” Ecol. Eng., 36(11), 1558–1566.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 14, 2012
Accepted: Apr 1, 2013
Published online: Apr 3, 2013
Published in print: Sep 1, 2013
Discussion open until: Sep 3, 2013
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.