Sources and behavior of ammonium during riverbank filtration
Gustavo Covatti1, Thomas Grischek1
1Dresden University of Applied Sciences, Friedrich-List-Platz 1, 01069Dresden, Germany.
Abstract:
Ammonium is an undesirable substance in the abstracted water of riverbank filtration (RBF) schemes, due mainly to the complications it causes during post-treatment. Based on the investigation of case studies from 40 sites around the world, an overview of the sources and behavior of ammonium during RBF is given. Typical concentrations of ammonium in the bank filtrate (BF) are between 0.1 and 1.7 mg/l. The most common source of ammonium in BF is the mineralization of organic nitrogen occurring in the riverbed, while the most common sink of ammonium is nitrification in the riverbed. Ammonium surface water concentrations do not directly translate to abstracted concentrations. Transformations in the riverbed play a critical role in determining ammonium concentrations, whereby riverbeds with high amounts of organic material will have more electron donor competitors for oxygen, thus limiting ammonium attenuation via nitrification.
Related Concept Videos
Metabolism of Chemolithotrophs
Comparative Excretory Systems
Overview of Nitrogen Metabolism
The largest pool of nitrogen available in the terrestrial ecosystem is gaseous nitrogen (N2) from the air, but this...
Inorganic Nitrogen Assimilation
The Nitrogen Cycle
Titration of a Weak Base with a Strong Acid
Using the ICE table and substituting the Kb value, we calculate the initial pH of 50 mL of 0.1 M ammonia to be 11.11. Addition of 25 mL of 0.1 M hydrochloric acid to this solution of ammonia results in a buffer with an equal concentration of ammonia and ammonium ions. The pH of this buffer can be calculated by substituting these...


