Term of Award

Fall 2024

Degree Name

Master of Science, Civil Engineering

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Civil Engineering and Construction

Committee Chair

George Yuzhu Fu

Committee Member 1

Francisco Cubas Suazo

Committee Member 2

L. Stetson Rowles

Abstract

This Research Project aimed to design, build, operate and maintain, and monitor a new green infrastructure (GI) using biochar-amended topsoil for on-site stormwater runoff treatment in urban areas. The project involved evaluating the removal efficiencies of pollutants from stormwater runoff such as total suspended solid (TSS), nutrients including nitrogen and phosphorous, heavy metals including lead (Pb), zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) and oil and grease etc. from the media of biochar amended topsoil. In this Project, a full-scale Field Test Site with a total area of 500 and 1 ft depth was built to on-site treat stormwater runoff from a parking lot on Georgia Southern University (GSU) campus in Spring 2023. It includes two cells: Control Cell (topsoil only) and Test Cell (5% biochar amended topsoil), 250 each, for a direct comparison purpose. During heavy rainfall events, the parking lot stormwater runoff was pumped and sprayed onto to the Field Test Site via sprinklers, infiltrated and treated through the 1 ft layer of topsoil or biochar amended topsoil in Control/Test Cell, and seeped into the corrugated perforated pipes and flowed into the end cylindrical catch basin drums, where the treated effluent samples were collected and tested for pollutants. Based on test results from Fall 2023 to Summer 2024, for about 528 gallons of the parking lot stormwater runoff treated by each Control and Test Cell, respectively, the removal efficiencies in Test Cell are higher than those in Control Cell and the removal efficiencies for Control Cell and Test Cell with the difference in the bracket are summarized as follows: TSS: 62.59% for Control Cell versus 87.13% for Test Cell (difference: 24.54%); TDS: 60.06% vs. 91.76% (31.70%); NH3-N: 59.00% vs. 89.25%, (30.25%); NO3--N: -30.57% vs 83.63% (114.2%); TKN: 64.80% vs 90.33% (25.53%); TN: 63.43% vs 88.65% (25.22%); TP: -217.33% vs 89.32% (306.65%); Oil and grease: 39.33% vs 87.22% (47.89%); Total Cu: 32.68% vs 82.10% (49.42%); Total Zn: 23.10% vs 74.48% (51.38%) and Total Pb: 18.04% vs 57.53% (39.50%). The results for on-site Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) density monitoring also showed that the 5% biochar amended topsoil in Test Cell had 58% higher biofilm quantity than Control Cell that affected the NO3--N removal efficiency over time. Overall, the removal efficiencies of pollutants by Test Cell were much higher than those by Control Cell. In summary, this new GI using biochar amended topsoil for on-site stormwater runoff treatment is cost-effective and sustainable.

OCLC Number

1478256231

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

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