Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Phosphorous in its various forms is an essential nutrient for all forms of life. As such, phosphorous is one ofx000D
the major components of fertilizers used in agriculture and urban lawns/gardens and is an important componentx000D
of food. Increased human activity has led to excessive amounts of phosphate entering the aquatic environmentx000D
via soil erosion and runoff from agricultural and urban lands. A major consequence of increased phosphate andx000D
other nutrient loads into lakes and waterways is algal blooms, which contaminate drinking water, degrade fishx000D
habitat, foul beaches, create navigation hazards and clog water intakes. Algal blooms can potentially bex000D
alleviated by removing phosphate at its point sources such as drainage tile outflows, greenhouse and animalx000D
waste treatment lagoons. The objectives of the current proposal are use greenhouse cellulosic waste from plantx000D
vines and roots to: 1- Develop chemically modified phosphate binding cellulosic materials (PBCM) as ax000D
phosphate-specific, high capacity and inexpensive phosphate-removal and recovery matrix; and 2- Incorporatex000D
the PBCM into a mobile filtration platform capable of servicing multiple point sources of phosphate. Thex000D
PBCM will be synthesized by green chemical methods and will have ~10-fold phosphate-selectivity over otherx000D
ions like chloride and sulfate. The PBCM will then be incorporated into a filtration system that will can removex000D
soluble and inorganic phosphate, recovering the soluble-phosphate and regenerating the matrix. The filtrationx000D
system will be on a mobile, self-contained platform capable of serving diverse and remote point sources ofx000D
phosphate. The proposed studies are supported by AR3C, a greenhouse waste recycling company.x000D
The proposed technologies will complement the limited number of existing tools for phosphate abatementx000D
such as land application and sanitary sewer collection. The additional benefit of this project is the utilization ofx000D
cellulosic greenhouse waste to create a value-added phosphate removal and recovery agent that will be inx000D
demand nationally and internationally.