\u2014<\/sup>N.<\/p>\nResults showed that 12 of the 18 biochars removed more nitrate than the woodchip control. The biochar with the most removal was the 600\u00b0C Corn Stover, which almost doubled the amount of nitrate removed by the control. Of the 12 biochars that removed more nitrate than the control, 50 percent were 800\u00b0C, 25 percent were 600\u00b0C, and 25 percent were 400\u00b0C. All six of the 800\u00b0C biochars performed better than the control. The nitrate results overall were more promising than what was found in the P sorption test. There is potential to increase the ability of field bioreactors to remove nitrate by adding biochar; however, more tests will be needed to see how the biochar handles scaling up and field conditions. This was a short-term test in a laboratory setting. It is possible that on a larger scale, longer timescale, and at varying influent nitrate concentrations, biochar could perform worse than seen in the lab.<\/p>\n
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A secondary part of the batch test was following up to the P sorption test. Because the biochar leached phosphorus in the P sorption test, the 24 hour soak in deionized water should have helped remove the initial leaching. We are still testing all of the biochars, but initial results from a set of three biochars and the woodchip control showed that all still leached phosphorus into the solution. This could be problematic for the use of biochar in field conditions and should be managed if tests are taken to full-scale.<\/p>\n
The next step for the project is to finish testing for phosphorus removal from the batch tests. After that, a paper will be written and submitted for publishing. As conferences are coming up this spring, I will be creating a poster to present at the Iowa Water Conference (March 21-22) and the Environmental Science Graduate Student Symposium (April 4).<\/p>\n
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Post submitted by\u00a0Emily Martin, MS Environmental Science student at Iowa State University and recipient of the Graduate Student Supplemental Research Competition Since the last update, we switched the focus of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[160,161,63,162,73,106],"class_list":["post-1995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research","tag-bioreactor","tag-graduate-student","tag-research","tag-seed-grant","tag-students","tag-water-quality"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Winter Update from the IWC Graduate Student Research Grant Program: Emily Martin - Iowa Water Center<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n