Comparison of Biofiltration Media in Treating Industrial Stormwater Runoff
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Comparison of Biofiltration Media in Treating Industrial Stormwater Runoff A Thesis SUBMITTED TO FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Kristofer Phillip Isaacson IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE Dr. Steven Sternberg, Dr. Chan Lan Chun July 2019 ©Kristofer Phillip Isaacson 2019 Acknowledgements I would like to express gratitude towards several people who contributed substantially to this project. Firstly, Dr. Steven Sternberg and Dr. Chan Lan Chun who served as my advisors and provided excellent guidance and constant encouragement. Thank you also to Dr. Guy Sander for serving on my thesis committee. Additionally, I’d like to thank the entirety of the Chun research group for providing suggestions and support along the way. Finally, I’d like to thank both the University of Minnesota-Duluth for the opportunity to work as a teaching assistant, and MnDrive for project funding. Funding from these institutions made this work possible. i Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my parents, Patty and Steve Isaacson for their unwavering support, and to my close friends who helped keep me sane through the duration of this project. ii Abstract Biofiltration systems have become one of the most commonly used best management practices in dealing with stormwater runoff. Stormwater runoff is inherently variable, with the contaminants present depending greatly on the land use of the catchment basin. This study characterized the stormwater collected from an industrial site in northeastern Minnesota. It was determined the pollutants of concern for this site are dissolved heavy metals (Aluminum, Copper, Iron) and bacteria. Different media exhibit different strengths and weaknesses in the removal of pollutants in these biofiltration systems. As a result, there is not a universal combination of media that can adequately treat all stormwater. 18 bio-based media were tested in batch experiments to determine if they possessed any capacity for heavy metal removal. Eight media (APTsorb, bioAPT, biochar, marble, sand, vermiculite, and zeolite) that showed good removal were studied further in downward flowing column experiments. These column experiments determined that all materials demonstrated some capacity for dissolved metal removal with the exception of sand. However, marble performed the best by a significant margin, removing over 10 mg/cm3 of iron, 4 mg/cm3 of aluminum, and 2 mg/cm3 of copper. The four materials that were determined to have the largest removal capacity for heavy metals (APTsorb, compost, marble, zeolite) were tested in an additional column experiment in which the synthetic stormwater was inoculated with E. coli. Marble again performed the best removing 100% of E. coli throughout the duration of a 56-hour iii continuous flow column experiment. This characterization process provides valuable information on the effectivity and longevity of a variety of media in the design of future biofiltration systems. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................... i Dedication ....................................................................................................................................... ii Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ v List of Tables ................................................................................................................................... xi List of Equations ............................................................................................................................ xii 1. Introduction to Stormwater and Stormwater Pollutant Removal Mechanisms ...................... 1 1.1 Stormwater ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Biofiltration ........................................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Pollutant Removal Mechanisms ........................................................................................... 5 1.4 Objectives .............................................................................................................................. 9 2. Stormwater Sampling and Quantitative Analysis of Pollutants ................................................ 9 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 9 2.2 Site Description ..................................................................................................................... 9 2.3 Sampling Method ................................................................................................................ 10 2.4 Laboratory Analysis ............................................................................................................. 11 2.4.2 Anion Analysis .............................................................................................................. 13 2.5 Results/Discussion .............................................................................................................. 13 2.6 Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 17 3. Investigation of Heavy Metal and Anion Removal from Stormwater Using Various Media in Batch Experiments ........................................................................................................................ 18 3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 18 3.2 Experimental Design ........................................................................................................... 18 3.3 Media Selection ................................................................................................................... 20 Organic Materials .................................................................................................................. 20 3.3.2 Biochar .......................................................................................................................... 21 3.3.3 Charcoal ........................................................................................................................ 21 3.3.4 Compost ........................................................................................................................ 21 3.3.5 Gravel ............................................................................................................................ 22 3.3.6 Fiber Grow Pellet ........................................................................................................... 22 3.3.7 Mulch ............................................................................................................................ 23 v 3.3.8 Orchid Mix ..................................................................................................................... 23 3.3.9 Pine bark ....................................................................................................................... 23 3.3.10 Topsoil ......................................................................................................................... 24 3.3.11 Vermiculite .................................................................................................................. 24 3.3.12 Woodchips................................................................................................................... 24 Inorganic Materials ............................................................................................................... 25 3.3.13 Marble ......................................................................................................................... 25 3.3.14 Perlite .......................................................................................................................... 25 3.3.15 Sand ............................................................................................................................ 26 3.3.16 Steel wool .................................................................................................................... 26 3.3.17 Zeolite .......................................................................................................................... 26 3.4 Results/Discussion .............................................................................................................. 27 3.6 Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 33 4. Metal Removal Capacity of Various Media from Stormwater ................................................ 33 4.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 33 4.2 Experimental Design ........................................................................................................... 34 4.3 Breakthrough Curve Analysis .............................................................................................. 36 4.4 Results/Discussion