Grantee Research Project Results
2015 Progress Report: Center for Reinventing Aging Infrastructure for Nutrient Management (RAINmgt)
EPA Grant Number: R835569Center: Center for Reinventing Aging Infrastructure for Nutrient Management
Center Director: Mihelcic, James R.
Title: Center for Reinventing Aging Infrastructure for Nutrient Management (RAINmgt)
Investigators: Mihelcic, James R. , Cunningham, Jeffrey A. , Zimmerman, Julie B. , Yeh, Daniel H , Boyer, Treavor H. , Davis, Allen , Anderson, Damann , Saetta, Daniella , Lopez, Emma , Dick, George , Dao, Hang , Shih, Jhih-Shyang , Xu, Jian , Payne, Karl , Orner, Kevin , Rankin, Laura , Rodriguez-Gonzalez, Laura , Trotz, Maya , Butcher, Melissa , Henderson, Michelle , Diaz-Elsayed, Nancy , Richardson, Nathan , Ozcan, Onur , Cornejo-Warner, Pablo , Zhang, Qiong , Wang, Ranran , Locicero, Ryan , Igielski, Sara , Schwartz, Sara , Ergas, Sarina , Olmstead, Sheila , Mireles, Shelby , Ishii, Stephanie , Lynn, Thomas , Issacs, Wainella , Xu, Xiaofan , Kuwayama, Yusuke
Current Investigators: Mihelcic, James R. , Cunningham, Jeffrey A. , Zimmerman, Julie B. , Yeh, Daniel H , Boyer, Treavor H. , Davis, Allen , Coney, Earnest , Shih, Jhih-Shyang , Trotz, Maya , Richardson, Nathan , Zhang, Qiong , Ergas, Sarina , Olmstead, Sheila , Kuwayama, Yusuke
Institution: University of South Florida , The University of Texas at Austin , University of Florida , Hazen and Sawyer , Yale University , Resources for the Future , University of Maryland - College Park
Current Institution: University of South Florida , Resources for the Future , University of Florida , University of Maryland - College Park , Yale University
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: September 1, 2013 through August 31, 2018
Project Period Covered by this Report: January 1, 2015 through December 31,2015
Project Amount: $3,123,375
RFA: Centers for Water Research on National Priorities Related to a Systems View of Nutrient Management (2012) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Watersheds , Water
Objective:
The mission of the Center for Reinventing Aging Infrastructure for Nutrient Management is to achieve sustainable and cost-effective health and environmental outcomes by re-imagining aging coastal urban infrastructure systems for nutrient recovery and management contributing to sustainable and healthy communities.
The overall goal of the Center for Reinventing Aging Infrastructure for Nutrient Management is to develop the science behind new technology and management innovations and a deep understanding of the integrated system while demonstrating and assessing these innovations to provide new knowledge for students and other community members, policy makers, regulators, design engineers, and regulated entities. This overall goal will be met by innovating sustainable, transdisciplinary, life cycle, and systems-based approaches applicable to the management of point and diffuse sources of nutrients, over different scales, and in urban coastal watersheds.
The three research thrusts and associated demonstration projects will: (1) address point and diffuse sources of nutrients, (2) consider different scales (i.e., household, building, community, city), (3) develop and assess management options that have different technological time frames for implementation (short- and long-term), and (4) focus on innovative technologies and strategies that prioritize source reduction and reuse/recycling and seek to minimize nutrient fluxes and greenhouse gas emissions (including carbon and nitrogen).
Center researchers have addressed why their research is "innovative." The Center determined at the February 2014 ESAB meeting that Center research is considered innovative if it includes:
- effective stakeholder engagement and collaboration that is initiated in the early stages of a project and maintained throughout the problem-solving process (problem scoping and formulation, goal-setting, indicator selection, alternative development, implementation, and evaluation),
- utilizes scenario planning to identify positive futures to work towards generating feasible solutions that reduce risks that can be difficult to quantify,
- seeks tangible and outcome-oriented interventions with the greatest potential to achieve multiple environmental goals,
- develops novel solutions that replace (rather than incrementally improve) current approaches and strategies,
- targets environmental problems with significant economic and social impacts,
- develops multidisciplinary solutions that deliver better results to solve a complex problems, and
- requires the development of new assessment tools and data sources.
Progress Summary:
The following Center accomplishments were noted for 2015:
- Demonstration site to assess nitrogen treatment in a modified bioretention system to manage nutrients in stormwater was initiated in the community of East Tampa, Florida.
- Training webinar and user worksheet were developed to enhance Community Engagement into Research that was delivered to Center researchers (reclaim | Community Engagement and Research Exit ).
- Anaerobic membrane bioreactor technology being developed by Center researchers was awarded the Cade Museum Prize for innovation and invention from entrepreneurs, innovators and inventors in the state of Florida.
- Research was completed that assessed how scale of implementation impacted the environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment integrated with greenhouse gas and nutrient management.
Future Activities:
Research Thrust 1: Demonstration projects associated with the Center that are expected to start up in 2016 include collaboration with wastewater utilities in the Tampa Bay area and a building level project to recover nutrients found in urine at the University of Florida.
Research Thrust 2: Completion of Center demonstration project comparing the modified lined denitrifying system to traditional bio retention systems in the field. Additionally, the Florida Onsite Sewage Nitrogen Reduction Strategies (FOSNRS) Project associated with the Center will be expanded to several residential homes in Florida. Phosphorus removal will also be monitored in these onsite systems.
Research Thrust 3: Life cycle assessment and life cycle costing will be performed for all the technologies tested/demonstrated in the Center to assess the sustainability of different nutrient management technologies. Systems modeling and hydro-economic modeling is underway to determine how to optimize wastewater reuse and the tradeoffs associated with different wastewater treatment and reuse scenarios. Center researchers also are continuing to modify the USGS SPARROW model for nutrient management in consultation with USGS and the Tampa Bay Estuary Program.
Journal Articles: 20 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other center views: | All 87 publications | 21 publications in selected types | All 20 journal articles |
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Cornejo PK, Zhang Q, Mihelcic JR. How does scale of implementation impact the environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment integrated with resource recovery? Environmental Science & Technology 2016;50(13):6680-6689. |
R835569 (2016) R835569 (2017) |
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Diaz-Elsayed N, Xu X, Balaguer-Barbosa M, Zhang Q. An evaluation of the sustainability of onsite wastewater treatment systems for nutrient management. Water Research 2017;121:186-196. |
R835569 (2017) |
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Ishii SK, Boyer TH. Life cycle comparison of centralized wastewater treatment and urine source separation with struvite precipitation: focus on urine nutrient management. Water Research 2015;79:88-103. |
R835569 (2017) |
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Kassouf H, Omer K, Parra A, Cunningham J. Treatment of an Aerobic Digester Sidestream in a Microbial Fuel Cell:Nitrate Removal and Electricity Generation. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING 2022;148(4). |
R835569 (Final) |
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Kuwayama Y, Kamen H. What drives the reuse of municipal wastewater? A county-level analysis of Florida. Land Economics 2016;92(4):679-702. |
R835569 (2015) R835569 (2016) R835569 (2017) |
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Lopez-Ponnada EV, Lynn TJ, Peterson M, Ergas SJ, Mihelcic JR. Application of denitrifying wood chip bioreactors for management of residential non-point sources of nitrogen. Journal of Biological Engineering 2017;11:16 (14 pp). |
R835569 (2017) |
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Lopez-Ponnada E, Lynn T, Ergas S, Mihelcic J. Long-term field performance of a conventional and modified bioretention system for removing dissolved nitrogen species in stormwater runoff. WATER RESEARCH 2020;170. |
R835569 (Final) |
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Lynn TJ, Yeh DH, Ergas SJ. Performance of denitrifying stormwater biofilters under intermittent conditions. Environmental Engineering Science 2015;32(9):796-805. |
R835569 (2016) |
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Lynn TJ, Ergas SJ, Nachabe MH. Effect of hydrodynamic dispersion in denitrifying wood-chip stormwater biofilters. Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment 2016;2(4). |
R835569 (2015) R835569 (2016) R835569 (2017) |
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Lynn TJ, Nachabe MH, Ergas SJ. Modeling denitrifying stormwater biofilters using SWMM5. Journal of Environmental Engineering 2017;143(7):04017017. |
R835569 (2017) |
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Omer K, Cools C, Balaguer-Barbosa M, Zainina N, Mihelcic J, Chen G, Cunningham J. Energy Recovery and Nitrogen Management from Struvite Precipitation Effluent via Microbial Fuel Cells. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING 2019;145(3). |
R835569 (Final) |
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Ray H, Saetta D, Boyer TH. Characterization of urea hydrolysis in fresh human urine and inhibition by chemical addition. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology 2018;4(1):87-98. |
R835569 (2017) |
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Saetta D, Boyer TH. Mimicking and inhibiting urea hydrolysis in nonwater urinals. Environmental Science & Technology 2017;51(23):13850-13858. |
R835569 (2017) |
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Suchetana B, Rajagopalan B, Silverstein J. Modeling risk attributes of wastewater treatment plant violations of total ammonia nitrogen discharge limits in the United States. STOCHASTIC ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND RISK ASSESSMENT 2019;33(3):879-889. |
R835569 (Final) |
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Tong S, Rodriguez-Gonzalez LC, Feng C, Ergas SJ. Comparison of particulate pyrite autotrophic denitrification (PPAD) and sulfur oxidizing denitrification (SOD) for treatment of nitrified wastewater. Water Science and Technology 2017;75(1-2):239-246. |
R835569 (2017) |
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Tong S, Stocks JL, Rodriguez-Gonzalez LC, Feng C, Ergas SJ. Effect of oyster shell medium and organic substrate on the performance of a particulate pyrite autotrophic denitrification (PPAD) process. Bioresource Technology 2017;244(Pt 1):296-303. |
R835569 (2017) |
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Wang R, Zimmerman JB. Economic and environmental assessment of office building rainwater harvesting systems in various U.S. cities. Environmental Science & Technology 2015;49(3):1768-1778. |
R835569 (2014) R835569 (2015) R835569 (2016) R835569 (2017) |
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Xu X, Schreiber D, Lu Q, Zhang Q. A GIS-Based Framework Creating Green Stormwater Infrastructure Inventory Relevant to Surface Transportation Planning. SUSTAINABILITY 2018;10(12). |
R835569 (Final) |
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Xu X, Zhang Q. Sustainable Configuration of Bioretention Systems for Nutrient Management through Life-Cycle Assessment and Cost Analysis. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING 2019;145(5). |
R835569 (Final) |
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Tong S, Rodriguez-Gonzalez LC, Feng C, Ergas SJ. Comparison of particulate pyrite autotrophic denitrification (PPAD) and sulfur oxidizing denitrification (SOD) for treatment of nitrified wastewater. Water Science & Technology2017;75(1-2):239-246. |
R835569 (2016) |
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Relevant Websites:
reclaim | Commumity Engagement and Research Exit
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.