I-Corps: Modular Hybrid Green Infrastructure Technology for Addressing Stormwater Challenges

I-Corps项目的更广泛/商业潜力在于，它为解决雨水径流问题提供了一种成本效益高、影响小的混合“绿色”方法，雨水径流是我国水资源受损的主要原因之一。由于未来人口增长驱动的土地利用和覆盖变化以及与预测的气候变化有关的风暴事件的双重影响，预计这些径流问题将会加剧，特别是在城市地区。认识到这些对水资源的威胁，加上传统城市水处理成本的增加，使人们对雨水管理的绿色基础设施方法产生了兴趣。然而，在目前的设计中，许多绿色基础设施系统是被动的：它们拦截水和去除污染物的有效性是高度可变的。这里描述的技术将为雨水工程师、开发商、城市管理者和房主提供重要的设计标准，以最大限度地提高绿色基础设施的性能和功能。因此，这种混合绿色技术的商业化是使潜在的最终用户广泛使用它来解决当前和未来的雨水/水资源挑战的关键。I-Corps项目将评估模块化混合雨水管理技术的市场潜力和商业化可行性，该技术可以增强绿色基础设施，最大限度地提高污染物去除效率，并允许储水。模块化混合绿色基础设施（MHGI）是一个密封系统，具有专门的管道和阀门组件，可以控制水潴留时间和地下水位高度的位置，因此拦截的雨水可以保持在土壤基质的深处，以最大限度地提高好氧/厌氧条件，通过植物和微生物处理促进生物修复。雨水储存时间可以控制，系统可以根据历史或预计径流量的变化进行调整。拦截的水也可以储存在系统内，等待蒸发蒸腾去除，或用于重复使用，如灌溉。该技术的初步alpha测试表明，该技术的氮磷去除率显著且一致，城市径流中硝酸盐去除率为88%，磷酸盐去除率为100%；化粪池污水中总氮去除率为95%，磷酸盐去除率为81%；农业径流中硝酸盐去除率为50%，铵态氮去除率为71%，铵态氮去除率为55%。

The broader/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is that it provides a cost-effective, low-impact hybrid 'green' approach for addressing stormwater runoff, one of the leading causes of impairment to our nation's waters. These runoff problems are expected to be exacerbated, particularly in urban areas, as a result of the coupled impacts of future population growth-driven land use and cover changes and storm events associated with projected climate change. Recognition of these threats to our water resources, together with the increasing costs of conventional municipal water treatment, has led to interest in green infrastructure approaches for stormwater management. However, in their current design, many of these green infrastructure systems are passive: their effectiveness for intercepting water and removing pollutants is highly variable. The technology described here will provide stormwater engineers, developers, city managers, and homeowners with important design criteria that will maximize green infrastructure performance and functionality. The commercialization of this hybrid green technology is therefore key for making it widely accessible to potential end-users to address both present and future stormwater/water resource challenges.This I-Corps project will assess the market potential and commercialization feasibility of a modular, hybrid stormwater management technology that augments green infrastructure both to maximize pollutant removal efficiency and allow for water storage. The modular hybrid green infrastructure (MHGI) is a sealed system with a specialized pipe and valve assembly that allows for both the control of water retention times as well as the location of the subsurface water table height, so that intercepted stormwater can be held within the soil matrix at a depth to maximize aerobic/anaerobic conditions that promote bioremediation via plant and microbial processing. Stormwater storage times can be controlled and the system can be made operational to adjust for changes in historical or projected runoff volumes. The intercepted water can also be stored within the system, pending removal by evapotranspiration, or for reuse purposes such as irrigation. Preliminary alpha testing of this technology demonstrated significant and consistent nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiencies with 88% nitrate and 100% phosphate removal observed for urban runoff, 95% total nitrogen and 81% phosphate removal observed for septic effluent, and 50% nitrate, 71% ammonium, and 55% removal observed for agricultural runoff.