Journal of Natural Environment

Nitrate treatment of agricultural drainwater using bioreactor

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 t, Water Science Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Imam Khomeini International University of Qazvin, Iran

2 Department of Water Engineering, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

3 Water Science Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Imam Khomeini International University of Qazvin, Iran

4 DrainageSpecialist,Iran

Abstract

With increasing population growth, the need for food has increased, resulting in increased agricultural production needs. To produce more, there are three important sources of soil, water and fertilizer, the unskilled use of chemical fertilizers by farmers leads to damage to the soil and to water and, consequently, to human health. Over the last few decades, attention has grown to the environment, and hence the preservation of natural resources, including water and land, has become more important. Of the most widely used fertilizers, nitrate fertilizers (urea) and phosphate fertilizers are introduced into the environment after the use of additional amounts through agricultural drainage, which has led to phenomena such as nutrition, as well as dangerous diseases such as cancer. Filtration of these elements requires high costs. But a new method in drainage science is being studied and studied, which, along with controlled drainage, can solve many of these problems. This method uses bioreactors that have a natural background and can provide a good environment for the activity of the biologists. Regarding the costs and availability of wheat in all parts of Iran, wheat straw were selected as a bioreactor bed. The research was carried out in 24 hours with three replications of this experiment with a wastewater with about 54 mg/L nitrate. All measurements were carried out on the test site with a 7100 photometer. The results of this study showed that nitrate concentration decreases over time. The results of this study showed that the decrease in nitrate concentration increased over time. Minimum reduction rate of nitrate was 54% and the maximum reduction was 100%, which showed acceptable performance of the bioreactor. Also, the results of statistical tests such as t and analysis of variance showed that 51 days of wheat straw had no difference in the reduction of nitrate concentration (bioreactor yield). There was a significant effect of temperature and initial concentration on the results. In the first step, the initial concentration was ineffective in this study and the covariance test was performed to examine the effect of temperature on the longevity of straw and straw that showed a lack of temperature effect. According to the results, we can use the bioreactor with wheat straw to reduce nitrate concentration of drain water in downstream fields.

Keywords

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Journal of Natural Environment
Volume 73, Issue 3
December 2020
Pages 613-624