Water and Air Quality Performance of a Reciprocating
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WATER AND AIR QUALITY PERFORMANCE OF A RECIPROCATING BIOFILTER TREATING DAIRY WASTEWATER A Master‘s Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering By Seppi Matthew Henneman March 2011 © 2011 Seppi Matthew Henneman ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP TITLE: Water and Air Quality Performance of a Reciprocating Biofilter Treating Dairy Wastewater AUTHOR: Seppi Matthew Henneman DATE SUBMITTED: March 2011 COMMITTEE CHAIR: Dr. Tryg Lundquist, Assistant Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering COMMITTEE MEMBER: Dr. Bruce Golden, Department Head & Professor, Dairy Science COMMITTEE MEMBER: Dr. Tracy Thatcher, Associate Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering iii ABSTRACT Water and Air Quality Performance of a Reciprocating Biofilter Treating Dairy Wastewater Seppi Matthew Henneman Agricultural non-point source pollution is the leading water quality problem in surface water and the second leading problem in ground water in the US. Among the contaminants, nutrients (such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) can be transported from agricultural fields when cropland is not managed properly. In California, dairy manure application to cropland has become tightly regulated with the goal of decreasing such nutrient pollution. Dairies unable to balance their manure nutrient supply with cropland application area may benefit from a nitrogen removal technology. One such technology is the reciprocating biofilter, known as the ReCip® technology. A pilot-scale ReCip® unit was installed at the Cal Poly dairy to evaluate its treatment efficacy, in particular for nitrogen removal, when treating wastewater from flush dairies. This pilot- scale system was the first application of the ReCip® technology to dairy wastewater, and recently it was found to be effective for removal of ammonium, total nitrogen, and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). In the ReCip®, wastewater is repeatedly pumped back and forth between two gravel-filled basins. This reciprocation creates two treatment environments: an aerobic environment, which promotes reactions such as nitrification and BOD oxidation, and an anoxic/anaerobic environment, which promotes reactions such as denitrification of nitrate into nitrogen gas and methanogenesis. At Cal Poly, the ReCip® treated storage lagoon water, and ReCip® effluent containing nitrate was returned iv to the lagoon, possibly contributing to odor control. Emission of air pollutants is a concern about dairy waste in general (volatile organic compounds, hydrogen sulfide, methane, etc.) and for nitrification-denitrification systems in particular (nitrous oxide). In the present work, the first detailed air emission study was conducted on ReCip®. Emissions of air pollutants were measured with flux chambers during different seasons, and, simultaneously, the water quality within the pore volume of the gravel beds was measured to explore whether pore water quality correlated to air emissions. These air emissions studies were performed within a yearlong study of overall ReCip® treatment performance. Water quality constituents measured were pH, alkalinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), total ammonia nitrogen (TAN), soluble nitrogen, soluble non- purgeable organic carbon, nitrite, and nitrate. During the submerged phase of the reciprocation cycle, pore water DO generally declined from 1-2 mg/L to <0.1 mg/L, while TAN declined and nitrate accumulated, although total nitrogen also declined due to denitrification. The extent of denitrification was correlated to influent BOD loading. ® The average removals by the ReCip were 93% TAN, 61% CBOD5, 74% TKN, and 57% TSS. A simple CBOD5 removal model was developed that described and predicted CBOD5 removal in the system. Key air pollutants emitted by the ReCip® and their annual mean concentrations were nitrous oxide (0.74 ppm), ammonia (0.15 ppm), and methane (3.85 ppm). The air emission potential of the lagoon water influent was compared to that of the ReCip® effluent. The decreases in emission potential were 82% for ammonia, 93% for methane, and 99% for hydrogen sulfide. The average masses emitted (g emitted/kg loaded into v ® system) by the ReCip were 1.7 g N2O/kg N, 0.15 g NH3/kg N, 2.1 g CH4/kg CBOD5, 1.0 g ethanol/kg CBOD5,and 0.004 g H2S/kg CBOD5. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My family – I couldn‘t have done this without all of your love and support. Thank you all. Especially thanks to Pricilla who made many adventurous trips out to the dairy with me and helped me every step along the way. Dr. Tryg Lundquist –You have been an amazing advisor and helpful friend over the last few years and I am grateful for all of your patience and support. Dr. Tracy Thatcher – Thank you for teaching me how to write technical documents. It has made the writing process much easier. Dr. Bruce Golden – Thank you for your help with coordinating dairy and ReCip® operations together. USEPA, Region 9 – Provided funding for the ReCip® pilot plant construction via Sustainable Conservation, Inc. Joe Choperena, Sustainable Conservation, Inc. – Thank you for your outstanding support of this project in all ways. Dr. Les Behrends – Thanks for inventing this technology and giving us advice when we needed it. Drs. Frank Mitloehner and Yong Zhao, U.C. Davis – Thank you for all your work in planning and executing the air quality testing. Tennessee Valley Authority – TVA licensed the technology for use at Cal Poly. Doug Kuentzel, Cal Poly Facilities – Thank you for helping to coordinate with the personnel we needed for construction. Craig Stubler, Earth and Soil Science Department – Thank you for analyzing our sludge samples. Rich Silacci, Cal Poly Herd Manager – Thanks for helping to communicating dairy operations with us so that both of our operations would run smoothly. Jason – You made working on this project easy. When times got tough, you got tougher. You were the perfect man for the job and it was awesome working with you. Paul, Kyle, Adam, Neal, and Sean – You guys all got dirty with us out at the dairy. We thank you for the blood and sweat that was spilt on the battleground we call the dairy. Ian, Ruth, Dan, Mike, Maggie, Ashwini and many other lab mates – You guys made it fun to work in the lab. It was awesome hanging out with you guys. ENVE Department Staff – Thank you Kay, Ron, and Xi. I found myself constantly going to you for help with any and everything and you were always happy to help. vii Contents List of Tables...................................................................................................................x List of Figures ............................................................................................................... xi 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................1 1.1 Nutrient problems in agriculture ............................................................................1 1.2 Treating nutrient rich wastewater ..........................................................................1 1.3 Dairy air quality ....................................................................................................3 1.4 Present work ..........................................................................................................4 2. Methods ...................................................................................................................5 2.1 Monitoring Plan ................................................................................................5 2.2 System Specifications and Mode of Operation ...................................................6 2.3 Experimental Procedure .................................................................................. 10 2.3.1 Air Emission Sampling Procedure ............................................................ 10 2.3.2 Calculation of Flux ................................................................................... 12 2.3.3 Pore Water Sampling Procedure .............................................................. 13 2.4 Water Quality Analyses ................................................................................... 14 2.5 Sludge Analysis ............................................................................................... 15 2.6 Regression Modeling ....................................................................................... 17 viii 2.6.1 Denitrification Model .................................................................................... 18 3. Results ................................................................................................................... 19 3.1 Summary of the Yearlong Study ....................................................................... 20 3.2 Seasonal Water Quality Variation ................................................................... 21 3.2.1 Carbon – Nitrogen Ratio .......................................................................... 23 3.3 Nitrogen Mass Balance.................................................................................... 25 3.4 Air Emission Measurement .............................................................................. 27 3.6.1 Flux .......................................................................................................... 30 3.5 Pore Water Quality.........................................................................................