Woodchip bioreactors can effectively remove waterborne nitrates from subsurface agricultural drainage and prevent the eutrophication of receiving water, but rapid biofilm growth can severely reduce water flux and denitrification efficiency of this practice within a few years. Tourmaline minerals with thermal excitation could generate reactive oxygen species which would inhibit bacterial growth. In this study, laboratory scale woodchip bioreactors were set up to test the anti-clogging and denitrification efficiency of heated woodchips with tourmaline, heated woodchips without tourmaline, and unheated woodchips. The results showed that the heated tourmaline treatment could reduce the clogging and optimize the nitrate removal rate (47.6 g N/m³/day) under all three hydrologic retention times tested (1, 4, and 8 h). Dissolved oxygen and pH values fluctuated with the removal rate and temperature change, while temperature was identified as the key factor impacting the tourmaline treatment. The heated tourmaline treatment had the lowest biofilm growth (lowest DNA concentration), while the 16S rRNA and a higher abundance of nirS-, nirK-, and nosZ-encoding denitrifying bacteria (based on qPCR) confirmed the higher denitrification efficiency of the heated tourmaline treatment.

木片生物反应器可以有效地去除地下农业排水中的水性硝酸盐，防止受水富营养化，但是快速的生物膜生长会在几年内严重降低水通量和反硝化效率。具有热激发作用的电气石矿物可产生活性氧，从而抑制细菌的生长。在这项研究中，建立了实验室规模的木片生物反应器，以测试带有电气石的加热木片，没有电气石的加热木片和未加热的木片的防堵塞和反硝化效率。结果表明，加热的电气石处理可以减少堵塞并优化硝酸盐去除率（47.6 g N / m ³/天）在测试的所有三个水文停留时间（1、4和8小时）下进行。溶解氧和pH值随去除速率和温度变化而波动，而温度被确定为影响电气石处理的关键因素。加热的电气石处理具有最低的生物膜生长（最低的DNA浓度），而16S rRNA和nirS-，nirK-和nosZ编码的反硝化细菌的丰度较高（基于qPCR）证实了加热的电气石具有较高的反硝化效率治疗。