Bioreactor-biochar (B2) treatment system: A novel design for efficient water pollution control from agri-drainage
type: CreativeWork
description: As part of modern agriculture, agricultural subsurface drainage plays a significant role in enhancing crop productivity, but there have been adverse environmental and health consequences associated with the use of the systems. Previous studies encourage adopting conservation practices or best management practices to overcome environmental impacts of drainage, such as denitrifying woodchip bioreactor and phosphate removal structure. The research presented in this dissertation aims to introduce and design an innovative edge-of-field technology that enables the control of water pollution from tile drainage using woodchip bioreactor and biochar systems. In this study, the engineering potential of designer biochar pellets for dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP)loss reduction from an intensified tile-drain agroecosystem was first evaluated. The performance of two types of designer biochar pellets on reducing agricultural diffuse DRP losses from tile drainages was investigated: Phase I - biochar pellets size 2~3 cm (operated for 170 days) vs Phase II - biochar pellets size <1 cm (operated for 250 days). The field demonstration indicated that multi-factors can co-affect the DRP loss reduction performance using designer biochar pellets, including pellet size, influent phosphorus load/concentrations, crop management, and temperature, especially pellet particle size. Techno-economic analysis revealed that designer biochar pellets economically remove DRP with an average unit production cost of $412.6/ton biochar and unit removal cost of $402.3 per kg DRP under wide economic and system design parameters. The results verified the use of biochar in the environmental management of tile drainage, allowing us to further design advanced systems for maximizing benefits. Following up this study, the possibility of a novel treatment system that combines woodchip bioreactor and designer biochar (B2) system was investigated to reduce both nitrogen and phosphorus loss from tile drainage at …
abstract: As part of modern agriculture, agricultural subsurface drainage plays a significant role in enhancing crop productivity, but there have been adverse environmental and health consequences associated with the use of the systems. Previous studies encourage adopting conservation practices or best management practices to overcome environmental impacts of drainage, such as denitrifying woodchip bioreactor and phosphate removal structure. The research presented in this dissertation aims to introduce and design an innovative edge-of-field technology that enables the control of water pollution from tile drainage using woodchip bioreactor and biochar systems. In this study, the engineering potential of designer biochar pellets for dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP)loss reduction from an intensified tile-drain agroecosystem was first evaluated. The performance of two types of designer biochar pellets on reducing agricultural diffuse DRP losses from tile drainages was investigated: Phase I - biochar pellets size 2~3 cm (operated for 170 days) vs Phase II - biochar pellets size <1 cm (operated for 250 days). The field demonstration indicated that multi-factors can co-affect the DRP loss reduction performance using designer biochar pellets, including pellet size, influent phosphorus load/concentrations, crop management, and temperature, especially pellet particle size. Techno-economic analysis revealed that designer biochar pellets economically remove DRP with an average unit production cost of $412.6/ton biochar and unit removal cost of $402.3 per kg DRP under wide economic and system design parameters. The results verified the use of biochar in the environmental management of tile drainage, allowing us to further design advanced systems for maximizing benefits. Following up this study, the possibility of a novel treatment system that combines woodchip bioreactor and designer biochar (B2) system was investigated to reduce both nitrogen and phosphorus loss from tile drainage at …
author: Zhou, Hongxu
language: eng
language: en
keywords: Biochar, Drainage, Woodchip Bioreactor, Sustainability
date published: 2024-12-04
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:25:03Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/2142/127365