Chemically Modified Cellulosic Materials-Based Phosphate Filtration System

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