Compost product optimization for surface water nitrate treatment in biofiltration applications

Compost based material has been proposed for use as media for biofiltration for environmental restoration in many areas to remediate contaminated water and soil. The objective of this project was to develop techniques to produce compost products for nitrate removal in storm water biofiltration applications, from typical solid waste materials. Compost products were manufactured from different feedstocks and evaluated for their nitrate removal efficiencies. Three different compost products manufactured from varying feedstock amounts of wood chips and grass clippings, along with some dry compost material from the City of Brownsville Municipal Landfill Facility (BMLF), were evaluated using column studies. Indicators of the compost product’s quality included moisture % content, pH, and conductivity measurements. The columns were loaded with water containing at least 13.5 mg/L nitrate–nitrogen and effluent water from the columns was tested to determine the nitrate reduction for the different products. All of the manufactured compost products and the BMLF material removed some nitrate. The project demonstrated that compost product materials can be effectively used for some nitrate removal for surface water quality improvement and that compost product feedstocks and blends can influence the materials capability for nitrate removal.