ARS | Publication request: REMOVAL OF SOLUBLE P IN A SWINE WASTE TREATMENT WITHOUT LAGOON: PROCESS AND QUALITY OF THE LIQUID EFFLUENT

Submitted to: Agronomy Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: November 3, 2003
Publication Date: November 3, 2003
Citation: VANOTTI, M.B., ELLISON, A.Q., SZOGI, A.A., HUNT, P.G. REMOVAL OF SOLUBLE P IN A SWINE WASTE TREATMENT WITHOUT LAGOON: PROCESS AND QUALITY OF THE LIQUID EFFLUENT [abstract]. AGRONOMY ABSTRACTS. 2003 CD-ROM.

Technical Abstract: Manure phosphorus in excess of the assimilative capacity of land available on farms is an environmental concern often associated with confined livestock production. We found that soluble phosphorus can be easily removed from animal wastewater, which has had a nitrification pre-treatment, in the form of calcium phosphate that can be used as a fertilizer. In the process, carbonate and ammonium buffers contained in liquid waste are removed during the nitrification step that substantially reduces the overall chemical demand needed for optimum phosphorus precipitation and removal. This process was applied to develop a system without lagoon where fresh flushed manure is first treated with polymer to separate the suspended solids, then subjected to a nitrogen removal using nitrification and denitrification, and then phosphorus is precipitated in a P-reactor. Removal efficiencies obtained in a pilot plant were 97% for soluble phosphorus, 98.5% for total P, 99.7% for TKN, and 99.2% for suspended solids. A full-scale system based on this research was constructed in Duplin County, NC, for demonstration and verification of Environmental Superior Technology under the Smithfield Foods/PSF and NC Attorney General program to develop alternative systems to lagoons.