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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Laboratory for Agriculture and The Environment » Agroecosystems Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #237554
Title: Enhancement of Hydrocarbon Components from Anaerobic Swine Waste Using an Environmental Microbial Pre-treatment

Author
item BIFFINGER, JUSTIN - U.S. NAVAL RESEARCH LAB
item Ziemer, Cherie
item FITZGERALD, LISA - U.S. NAVAL RESEARCH LAB
item RINGEISEN, BRADLEY - U.S. NAVAL RESEARCH LAB
item ZAINAL, THEODOR - NAVAL MEDICAL RES CTR
item HENRY, KURT - NAVAL MEDICAL RES CTR

Submitted to: American Chemical Society National Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/8/2009
Publication Date: 8/20/2009
Citation: Biffinger, J.C., Ziemer, C.J., Fitzgerald, L.A., Ringeisen, B.R., Zainal, T., Henry, K. 2009. Enhancement of Hydrocarbon Components from Anaerobic Swine Waste Using an Environmental Microbial Pre-treatment [abstract]. American Chemical Society National Meeting, August 16-20, 2009, Washington, DC. 2009 CD-ROM.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The microbial ecology of human and animal waste is complex because of the high diversity of bacterial species and metabolic capabilities. Research into the generation of energy from these wastes has primarily focused on gas generation (especially methane). While there is some work looking at ethanol and biodiesel production from solid wastes, little effort has focused on hydrocarbon production. The advantage of generating kerosene-like compounds from swine waste is the utilization of long-chain lipids which would come from four natural sources: undigested dietary lipids, host lipids excreted in feces, bacterial cell wall, and products of bacterial fermentation. There are limited options to alter undigested dietary- and host-excreted lipids under conditions of military diets, so targeting lipids associated with bacteria in the waste gives a greater number of options. This presentation will describe our results in increasing the amount of aviation fuel-like components from the anaerobic treatment of swine waste with environmental microbes. Our results using thermal gravimetric analysis with differential scanning calorimetry, GC/MS, and GC/TCD demonstrate that using facultative anaerobic microbes to bioremediate fecal waste will increase the energetic content of the source by at least 20% and increase the percentage of valuable alkane components with carbon chain lengths between C10-C17 for JP-5 and lubricants.