River Refugium Flow Chart

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This post will serve as a more visual description of the River Refugium process from a high level. Individual operations will vary according to nutrient density, local needs, value of crops locally, and other considerations.

We start with our nutrient polluted river. This body of water is fed by agricultural run off, industrial discharge, water treatment plant overflow, and urban/suburban lawn fertilization. From this source we feed a gathering pool or tank on the side of the river.

Nearby is the intake testing station and pumphouse. Intake testing should be full spectrum testing conducted with sufficient frequency to monitor seasonal water quality and predict best opportunities to overfill water feed storage tanks to maximize nutrient uptake in the system. For more information of that testing process, please see part 6 in the introduction series Fixing the Dead Zone.

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From this station water is pumped to the evaporation greenhouse, where it undergoes evaporation, concentrating the nutrients further. This process is described in depth in this article titled Evaporation Greenhouse.

From the evaporation greenhouse the water is pumped to a mechanical and biologic filtration room. The concentrated water then flows through a series of tanks filled with river rocks. These rocks provide surfaces for beneficial bacteria to colonize, aiding in the breakdown of organic matter and mineralization of nutrients. Aeration tanks ensure proper oxygenation of the water to support aerobic bacteria growth. If testing warrants, additional tanks may be utilize to provide anaerobic bacteria colonization as well. I am not certain it would improve nutrient uptake, but it may.

The next stage is the Primary Hydroponic Greenhouse Crop Production. The now partially treated water is directed to a hydroponic greenhouse where the main cash crops are grown. The plants absorb nutrients from the water, further purifying it. This section will involve as many greenhouses as the system can support with substantial crop production AND without additional inputs. Harvested crops will be transported to the crop processing building (we will get back to this) and the remaining water will be pumped to an algae bioreactor greenhouse.

The algae bioreactor greenhouse will provide one last opportunity to remove excess nutrient before routing the water out to the water consolidation and outflow testing tanks, where the full spectrum water test will be repeated with the same frequency as the intake test for efficacy monitoring.

The physical algae will be added to the physical waste remaining from processing the cash crop of choice. That refuse will be processed in the HTC (Hydrothermal Carbonization) plant into biofuel, biochar, and other consolidated wastes of unknown use or disposal needs. That fuel has the potential to provide for the power needs of the entire operation. Any excess should be sold along side the cash crop, biochar, and other useful harvested chemicals.

This is the basic flow of processes which will allow water purification of our river systems, which will in turn reduce the dead zones at the mouths of rivers that is caused by nutrient pollution. In addition, multiple cash crops will be grown for sale, enabling the operation to be self sustaining in a profit driven environment. As previously noted, operations will be adjusted to suit the specific needs of the region of operations for each station.

For more information on how to fix Dead Zones in the Gulf of Mexico and the mouth of other rivers, follow this link –>

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