Grantee Research Project Results
2017 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 , Coney, Earnest , Shih, Jhih-Shyang , Trotz, Maya , Richardson, Nathan , Zhang, Qiong , Ergas, Sarina , Olmstead, Sheila , Kuwayama, Yusuke
Institution: University of South Florida , University of Florida , 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: September 1, 2016 through August 31,2017
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).
Progress Summary:
A summary of Center accomplishments are noted for 2017:
- Researchers completed demonstration of waterless urinals designed so that they minimize unwanted precipitation of urine-derived minerals and simultaneously maximize the potential for nutrient recovery from stored urine. Results of the demonstration were published this year.
- Researchers completed second year monitoring of the side-by-side comparison of a conventional bioretention system and a modified bioretention system to better manage nitrogen in stormwater. During this year plants were added to the system to investigate the impact of plants on nitrogen removal in the demonstration system.
- Researchers initiated a demonstration system of a new technology for removal of nitrogen in on-site wastewater treatment systems and opened the demonstration system to practitioners during a one-day event.
- Two patents have now been awarded for a technology developed with the Center that has the potential to be used for sidestream and non-sewered sanitation applications in the U.S. and globally. A demonstration of a larger scale system is planned for 2018.
- Researchers completed laboratory tests to evaluate the performance of a treatment system that consisted of anaerobic digestion, precipitation of struvite from the digester effluent, nitritation or nitrification of the liquid effluent from the struvite precipitation, and a microbial fuel cell (MFC) with nitrite/nitrate serving as the electron acceptor in the cathode. A demonstration of a larger scale system is planned for 2018.
- Researchers completed Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for the following nutrient management technologies under discharge and reuse scenarios: (1) urine separation using improved waterless urinals and no-mix toilets, (2) anaerobic membrane bioreactors for discharge and water/nutrient reuse scenarios, (3) an on-site wastewater treatment system that compares conventional systems with advanced ones engineered for greater nitrogen removal, (4) alternative bioretention system configurations with various depths of the denitrification zone and on-ground plant species.
- Researchers completed development of the analytical hydroeconomic model of an optimal “closed system” with a point nutrient pollutant source that will now allow us to conduct theoretical and numerical analyses of different nutrient removal and recovery management strategies.
- Coordination with other Center researchers is taking place to allow us to quantify private benefits and costs to households, businesses, and other parties for several nutrient recovery technologies developed by the Center, by pairing the benefit estimates for nutrient recovery and water reuse from the analytical model with life cycle cost estimates.
- Researchers continued development of a modeling framework to quantify watershed-scale water quality impacts of nutrient management technologies and strategies along with a decision support model to provide guidance on optimal location and capacity design of these nutrient management technologies.
- Center participants continued research to integrate cost and benefit information with the nested water quality modeling framework and developed a mathematical model for the optimal spatial allocation of investments in nutrient management across technologies (point source nutrient recovery, non-point source nutrient management, and recovery/treatment at the centralized wastewater treatment plant).
- Center participants initiated research to monetize the benefits of water quality improvements in Tampa Bay (Florida) that are achievable through nutrient recovery technologies, diffuse source nutrient management, and nutrient recovery at the City of Tampa’s centralized treatment plant, using benefit estimates from the economics literature.
- We are currently collecting state and local regulations and guidelines relating to nutrient management with the plan to identify policy changes to spur adoption by households/businesses and integration into regulatory compliance and improved water quality.
- Researchers integrated nutrient and stormwater management research demonstrations with K-12 science education at local middle schools and at a community center, all located in under-represented neighborhoods of EPA Region 4.
- Center researchers continued to partner with the Corporation to Develop Communities of Tampa, Inc. (CDC) to train non-traditional adult learners to implement green infrastructure. This training is incorporated into a six-week adult workforce development program on construction that is offered through the CDC’s Tampa Vocational Institute (TVI) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usf8VHKQuUg).
- Center researchers served on the leadership committees for the WEF Nutrient Symposium 2017 (Ft. Lauderdale, FL). The Nutrient Symposium 2017 was held by the Water Environment Federation in cooperation with the Florida Water Environment Association and the Water Environment & Reuse Foundation.
- Center researchers led efforts to organize a full-day session on “on-site and decentralized nutrient removal and recovery systems” at the Nutrient Symposium 2017 (Ft. Lauderdale, FL).
- Center leadership worked with EPA, DOE, NSF, and WE&RF to advance significant opportunities to spur innovation and accelerate adoption of reliable technologies that enhance integrated resource recovery in the wastewater sector by creation of a National Test Bed Network (www.werf.org/testbednetwork).
References:
Butcher M.R. (2014). Diffuse nutrient pollution from residential catchments. M.S.C.E. Thesis. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, June 16, 2014 http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/5194
Cornejo, P.K., Zhang, Q., Mihelcic, J.R. (2016). How Does Scale of Implementation Impact the Environmental Sustainability of Wastewater Treatment Integrated with Resource Recovery? Environmental Science & Technology, 50(13), 6680-6689.
Diaz-Elsayed, N., Xu, X., Balaguer-Barbosa, M., Zhang, Q. (2017). An evaluation of the sustainability of onsite wastewater treatment systems for nutrient management. Water Research, 121, 186-196.
Dick G.H. (2015). Direct membrane filtration of domestic wastewater: implications for coupling with anaerobic membrane bioreactor (DF-AnMBR) for wastewater resource recovery. M.S. Thesis, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/5829
Igielski, S.J. (2016) Understanding Urban Stormwater Denitrification in Bioretention Internal Water Storage Zones, MS Thesis, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland College Park.
Ishii, S.K., Boyer, T.H. (2015). Life cycle comparison of centralized wastewater treatment and urine source separation with struvite precipitation: focus on urine nutrient management. Water Research, 79, 88-103. (not supported by EPA funds).
Kuwayama, Y., Kamen, H. (2016). What drives the reuse of municipal wastewater? A county-level analysis of Florida. Land Economics, 92 (4), 679-702.
Lopez, E., Lynn, T., Peterson, M., Ergas, S., Trotz, M., Mihelcic, J. (2016) Enhanced Nutrient Management of Stormwater through a Field Demonstration of Nitrogen Removal in a Modified Bioretention System. World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2016, pp. 60-69. doi: 10.1061/9780784479865.007
Lopez-Ponnada, E.V., Lynn, T.J., Peterson, M., Ergas, S.J., Mihelcic, J.R. (2017a). Application of denitrifying wood chip bioreactors for management of residential non-point sources of nitrogen. Journal of Biological Engineering, 11(1), 16.
Lopez-Ponnada, E.V., Ergas, S.J., Trotz, M.A., Barton, F., Mihelcic, J.R. (2017b). Enhanced Management of Nitrogen in Urban Stormwater Runoff through a Field Demonstration of a Modified Bioretention System. Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation, 2017(3), 156-160.
Lynn, T.J., Ergas, S.J., Nachabe, M.H. (2016). Effect of Hydrodynamic Dispersion in Denitrifying Wood-Chip Stormwater Biofilters, J. Sustainable Water in the Built Environment – ASCE, 2(4), 1-7. 2
Lynn, T.J., Nachabe, M.H., Ergas, S.J. (2017). Modeling Denitrifying Stormwater Biofilters Using SWMM5. Journal of Environmental Engineering, 143(7), 04017017.
Orner, K.D., Cools, C., Mihelcic, J.M., Cunningham, J.A. “Microbial Fuel Cells Integrate Energy Production with Nutrient Management in Municipal Wastewater Plant Sidestreams,” 253rd American Chemical Society National Meeting, San Francisco, CA, April 2-6, 2017.
Ozcan, O.Y. Development of an Anaerobic-Phototrophic Bioreactor System for Wastewater Treatment" (2016). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6559
Peterson, M.A. (2016). The Effect of the Antecedent Dry Conditions on Nitrogen Removal for a Modified Bioretention System, MS Thesis, Dept. Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa Florida. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6567
Ray, H., Saetta, D., Boyer, T.H. (2018). Characterization of urea hydrolysis in fresh human urine and inhibition by chemical addition. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, 4, 87-98.
Saetta, D. (2016). Urea Hydrolysis Inhibition in Waterless Urinals for Water Conservation and Nutrient Recovery, Graduate Thesis, University of Florida.
Saetta, D., Boyer, T.H. (2017). Mimicking and inhibiting urea hydrolysis in nonwater urinals. Environmental Science & Technology, 51(23):13850-13858.
Stocks, J.L. (2017). Enhancement of Two Passive Decentralized Biological Nitrogen Removal Systems, MS Thesis, Dept. Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa Florida.
Tong, S., Stocks, J.L., Rodriguez-Gonzalez, L.C., Feng, C., Ergas, S.J. (2017). Effect of oyster shell medium and organic substrate on the performance of a particulate pyrite autotrophic denitrification (PPAD) process. Bioresource Technology, 244, 296-303.
Tong, S., Rodriguez-Gonzalez, L.C., Feng, C., Ergas, S.J. (2017). Comparison of particulate pyrite autotrophic denitrification (PPAD) and sulfur oxidizing denitrification (SOD) for treatment of nitrified wastewater. Water Science and Technology, 75(1), 239-246.
Wang, R., Zimmerman, J.B. (2015) Economic and Environmental Assessment of Office Building Rainwater Harvesting Systems in Various U.S. Cities. Environmental Science and Technology, 49 (3): 1768-1778.
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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Type | Citation | ||
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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) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit |
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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) |
Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit |
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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) |
Exit Exit Exit |
Relevant Websites:
- USF reclaim
- Google Photos Exit
- Training non-traditional adult learners to implement green infrastructure with leadership of CDC’s Tampa Vocational Institute
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.