NSF says denitrifying bioreactors could solve nitrogen run-off problem

Biotech Digest
November 19, 2010 Tom Saidak

In Virginia, The National Science Foundation announced that a simple and inexpensive technology may solve the issue of excess nitrogen from agricultural and urban lands may be possible. The nitrogen run off from fertilizers is contaminating groundwater, streams, lakes and estuaries, where it causes harmful algal blooms and contributes to fish kills.

A recent scientific workshop on denitrification brought together ecologists, engineers and policy experts to find answers, and their findings will be published in the November, 2010, special issue of the scientific journal Ecological Engineering. One workshop goal was to evaluate a new and relatively inexpensive way to treat wastewater and drainage from agricultural lands using “denitrifying bioreactors.”

Read more