Grant: Idea to Innovation

Pressure on surface waters is being increased due to human actions on land and new climate change scenarios. For this fundamental reason, eutrophication scenarios are augmented. In eutrophication occurrence, surface water will go through physical chemical and biological change including obnoxious smells, decrease of dissolved oxygen, and harmful toxin production. The market needs for remediation procedures are increasing as the occurrences of eutrophic water resources are growing every year. The eutrophication scenario is being addressed by the removal of suspended particles which are associated with nutrients using a floating filtration system, a silt curtain (i.e., for containment of a specific area), and geotextiles (woven and non-woven) as filter media. A novel, flexible, reactive and potentially economically efficient environmental remediation, which up to this date there is no similar treatment being proposed in the specialized literature. By the geotextile filtration presented, removal of suspended solids and particulate phosphorus could be achieved reducing the likeability of eutrophication scenarios, improving the water resource quality and possibly decreasing/suppressing algal/cyanobacteria blooms. The main objective is to develop a system for the on-site restoration, management, and control of water quality to reduce incidences of cyanobacteria blooms through nutrient reduction to lower than eutrophic levels. The short-term objectives are to determine the factors that influence contaminant removal efficiency, to determine the parameters for scale-up and to determine the technico-economic evaluation of full scale-implementation at these lakes. In addition, once clogged, determination of methods for declogging the filters and evaluation of their reuse to minimize waste will be determined. The remediation system can be implemented in the surface water prior to or when significant cyanobacteria growth occurs, focused on where the problem is the worst and then the system is removed when it is not necessary. Lastly, as the described product does not add any chemicals in the water column, impacts on the lake ecosystem as well as to water end-users are minimized.