Evaluation of bio-treated manure application impact on groundwater quality using advanced reactive transport models

IAH 2026 - World Groundwater Congress, Budapest, Macaristan, 14 - 18 Eylül 2026, ss.418, (Özet Bildiri)

Managing and reusing agricultural runoff and manure is crucial for efforts to reclaim nutrients and water.

In the EU-27 and the UK, over 1.4 billion tons of manure are generated each year, typically processed using

separation technologies that split the raw material into liquid and solid parts. This technology enables field

application and aligns with the core principles of the circular economy: the composted solid portion serves

as a valuable soil fertilizer, enhancing soil structure, aeration, solarization, and organic matter content,

whereas the liquid portion can potentially be used for irrigation. However, its use is restricted by several

factors, including steroid hormones from the excreta (urine and feces) of farm animals, as well as endocrine-

disrupting chemicals (EDCs).

In this study, preliminary results of the multinational BioTreatED project are presented. The project’s

objectives are to develop and validate biological treatment methods for degrading and detoxifying

hormones; to determine the subsurface fate and transport of hormones originating from manure application.

Monitoring data from plot experiments are used to setup and calibrate a two-dimensional cross-sectional

unsaturated zone flow and transport model (HYDRUS-2D), which simulates the movement and concentration

distributions of hormone compounds within the soil profile during irrigation. The lateral boundary conditions

are based on local flow conditions, while the upper boundary condition is set according to varying water

infiltration rates, which depend on irrigation fluxes and weather conditions. The model accounts for sorption

and biochemical reactions in different phases. The subsequent phase will involve a separate model for

reactive transport in the saturated zone, using outputs from the unsaturated model to predict groundwater

concentrations and velocities of hormones. The transport model will be in the form of a customised module

of the multi-species flow and transport model MT3DMS.

The project BioTreatED (Water4All2023-334) has received funding from Nemzeti Kutatási, Fejlesztési és Innovációs

Hivatal (Hungary), the Rsearch Council of Norway (Norway), Fundacão para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal), Agencia

Estatal de Investigación (Spain), Narodowe Centrum Nauki (Poland), TÜBITAK - The Scientific and Technological

Research Council of Türkiye (Türkiye) and the European Union’s Horizon Europe Programme under the 2023 Joint

Transnational Call of the European Partnership Water4All (Grant Agreement n°101060874).