Interception de contaminants dans les eaux de ruissellement agricole à l’aide de verre recyclé modifié par des oxyhydroxydes de fer

Abstract

Excessive inputs of nutrients and pollutants from agricultural runoff undeniably contribute to the degradation of water quality, highlighting the need for innovative, adaptable, and operationally simple solutions. In this context, crushed recycled glass appears as a promising filtration medium, yet it remains poorly studied for the treatment of agricultural runoff. While the literature demonstrates that the adsorption capacity of filtration media can be enhanced through surface modification, no studies have specifically explored this approach using glass. This project therefore represents the first attempt to investigate the modification of recycled glass surfaces with iron oxyhydroxides and polyacrylamide (PAM), combined with lowtemperature dehydration (≤120 °C), for agricultural water treatment. Column experiments were conducted following a 3 × 4 factorial design to evaluate the removal efficiency of various water quality parameters, including turbidity, total organic carbon, orthophosphates, and metals. The study also compared the performance of modified glass media with unmodified ones. Coated and modified media at 90 °C showed a notable improvement in turbidity removal for the two coarsest particle size fractions (1190 μm and 2000 μm). No significant differences in surface elemental composition were observed between media modified at 90 °C and 100 °C. Across all particle sizes and modification temperatures, the modified media did not release boron or iron above 0.1 ppm, and iron removal reached at least 76 % for all tested media. This study confirms the potential of modified recycled glass as a low-cost filtration medium, providing an effective valorization of a residual waste material.

Date	20 Aug 2026
Original language	French
Awarding Institution	École de technologie supérieure
Supervisor	Mathieu Lapointe (Supervisor)