Application of denitrification beds technology to remove of nitrate from agriculture drainage water

Application of denitrification beds technology to remove of nitrate from agriculture drainage water

Nitrate, nutrients management, agricultural drainage water, biological denitrification, denitrification beds

There is not enough nitrate anion in the soil. Thus farmers are forced to meet the need for plants to use nitrogen fertilizers. Nitrate quickly washes out of the soil and enters through groundwater drainage system to surface water. With the influx of nitrogen compounds to the environment like rivers, environmental issues may occur such as nitrate accumulation in the body tissues of aquatic organisms especially fish that disrupts the reproduction of them. Endangering human health and the incidence of diseases, eutrophication waters and algae growth. Therefore to increase environmental sustainability of agricultural systems, it is necessary that management of nutrients would be targeted. Various methods are used to remove nitrate from waters. Due to the high volume of agricultural drainage water, only biological removal method is usable to remove nitrates from agricultural drainage water because of nitrate removal costs in the Other methods are high. One of the possible strategies to biological denitrification is the use of denitrification beds. Denitrification beds are a cost-effective technology to remove nitrates from agricultural drainage water. Denitrification beds are trenches that are filled with organic matter. These organic matter are source of energy for bacteria that converts nitrate to nitrogen gas. In fact, denitrification beds are a simple and relatively inexpensive technology where the carbon sources are used to facilitate denitrification. The denitrification intensity depends on carbon sources that are used in the denitrification beds. The carbon materials that are used in denitrification beds must be compatible with the environment. The reaction product of this matter and nitrate should not have bad effect on the surrounding environment and also should not be become a source of contamination in the future. Making the minimum cost associated with denitrification beds is important thus materials with longer durability must be selected that are not destroyed during of the reaction and also the selected material should not cause disturbance to water movement. The laboratory studies must be done to determine the optimal of carbon materials. Finally among carbon materials, the materials are selected that there is balance between availability and cost and also their reaction rate. Despite widespread acceptance, there are still many unresolved issues in the long-term performance of denitrification beds that have been effective on reliability, ability to install and use them in large scale. This article discusses about of the importance of using denitrification beds. Research conducted on denitrification beds and factors affecting nitrate removal in these beds are described and also the advantages and limitations of these beds are mentioned.