ABGC is looking for a banana grower who is willing to trial a wood-chip bioreactor on their farm.

A wood-chip bioreactor is a trench that is filled with wood-chips that is then covered over with soil to create a sealed, anaerobic (no oxygen) environment within the trench. This creates an ideal environment within the trench for the process of denitrification (nitrogen removal) by soil bacteria.

Under anaerobic conditions soil bacteria called denitrifiers use the carbon in the wood-chip bioreactor as their food source and nitrate in the water passing through the bioreactor as part of their respiration process.

This creates a water treatment system, whereby nitrates leached in ground water can be removed through the denitrification process in the bioreactor.

This technology has been trialed widely in the United States with promising results. The NQ trial aims to determine whether this technology can work in a wet tropical environment.

This project will involve water quality monitoring prior to the bioreactors installation to determine if the site is suitable.

For further information on this trial please contact Sarah on 07 4015 2797.