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BSEN 4310: Design research Individual assignment

Due date: January 24, 2020, 4:45pm Retain copy for reference.

Name: Molly Zahorian Date: 1/23/2020

Descriptive design project name: Patterson Runoff Reuse Project

State the project design objective(s) your research is supporting: Filtration

Title of your research topic: Physical and Chemical filtration of runoff

(100 points) Design research assignment: Complete four components,

below. Provide type-written answers. Submit on Canvas as a pdf
document.

(10 pts) a. Justification for selecting your research topic (50-100 words):

My research topic is physical and chemical filtration. This supports the design
because the runoff water from the irrigation system will carry leaves, sticks and other
physical debris. This runoff could also potentially contain chemical contaminants
including fertilizer and other dissolved nutrients. Both runoff portions will need to be
filtered before reuse of the water. Reuse of the runoff is the main goal of the design
therefore filtration is an extremely important aspect.

(10 pts) b. Introduction to the research topic (one paragraph suitable for insertion into
report, 50-100 words):

One of the challenges of collecting the runoff water from the nursery pads will be
the treatment of this water. Not only do we need to take out any large physical items, we
will also need to treat the water for any chemical residues. This means the collection
system requires a two-part filtration system. The first part of the filtration system will
occur before the water is in the tank and remove all the large particulate. The second part
of the filtration system will occur just before the water leaves the system.

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(60 pts) c. Research findings: Body of design research information captured by you for
your semester project (minimum three paragraphs, 500-1000 words total, include at least
one research citation in each paragraph):

This research included two major parts, the physical filtration of large particulate
matter and the chemical filtration of the irrigation runoff. Physical filtration is the
removal of large particulate matter that would flow directly into the storage container. In
some places, geotextiles were used to address clogging problems while still allowing
water to flow (Sanudo-Fontaneda et al., 2018). Geotextiles can be used to prevent the
relocation of soils and other large particulates. For this specific project, the goal is to
prevent large debris from entering the storage container. This can be done so by placing
geotextiles around the entrance site. Geotextiles have an opening size of 150 µm
(Sanudo-Fontaneda et al., 2018). This is approximately the width of a strand of hair.
Therefore, these geotextiles would prevent the entry of large particles like leaves and
twigs but also smaller particles like sand and gravel. Geotextiles will require some
maintenance including removal of soil buildup, so they perform properly.

Chemical filtration options can come in a two-part system with an option that
would occur outside of the storage tank. This would decrease the amount of fertilizer
collecting in the water before it entered the storage tank. This filtration system would be
implementing grass of differing heights running parallel to the slope to collect some of
the runoff nutrients. This project applied fertilizer and then performed a rain event 4
hours later, the buffers of varying height reduced the Nitrogen by 17%, the Phosphorus
by 11% and had a total of 19% less runoff volume (Moss et al., 2006). Overall, the grass
barriers reduced a lot of the chemical aspects that would need to be treated later without
the use of another filtration system. The varying grass heights is something that could be
implemented at the site to decrease the runoff concentrations of fertilizer which in turn
would decrease the chemical filtration needing to be implemented later. While this option
is more cost effective, it also comes with a higher maintenance effort. The grass is the
research project has varying heights between 25 mm and 51 mm (Moss et al., 2006). The
only major problem here is the grass would need to have constant maintenance to work
correctly and therefore actually prevent the chemical runoff. If the maintenance effort is
deemed too much by the client, then there is no point in implementing this control factor.

The chemical treatment option for inside the tank is Granular Activated Carbon
(GAC) Filters. The filters collect common chemicals in fertilizer and remove them from
the water. The GAC system usually consists of three 2 to 4 L canisters that contain the 8
x 30 US mesh bituminous coal GAC (Grant et al., 2018). The study cited in this research
investigated the length of time the water needed to contact the filters for optimum
removal of the agrichemicals. The GAC removal system would remove pesticides and
organic contaminants by absorbing them into the carbon filters. All in all, the GAC filters
removed portions of al the active ingredients in the 11 pesticides reviewed with an
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increased removal rate at 64s of contact time (Grant et al., 2018). This would be the
inside chemical filtration implemented in our system with little maintenance cost and
high rates of removal it is an ideal candidate.

(20 pts) d. List of references (listed alphabetically according to ASABE Author

Guidelines):

Grant, G. A., Fisher, P. R., Barrett, J. E., Wilson, P. C. (2018). Removal of

Agrichemicals from Water Using Granular Activated Carbon Filtration: Water, Air, &
Soil Pollution, 230(7). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-018-4056-y

Moss, J. Q., Bell, G. E., Kizer, M. A., Payton, M. E., Zhang, H., Martin, D.L. (2005).
Reducing Nutrient Runoff from Golf Course Fairways Using Grass Buffers of Multiple
Heights: Crop Sci. Soc. of America 46(1), 72-80.
http://doi.org/10.2135/cropsci2005.0110

Sanudo-Fontaneda, L. A., Coupe, S. J., Charlesworth, S. M., Rowlands, E. G. (2018)

Exploring the effects of geotextiles in the performance of highway filter drains:
Geotextiles and Geomembranes, 46(5), 559-565.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geotexmem.2018.04.006