A manure treatment system to produce water of drinking quality

Profil Titel	A manure treatment system to produce water of drinking quality
Referenz	07 NL NLSE 0IS1
Herkunftsland	Netherlands
Kooperationsart	Angebot
Eintrag/Änderung	2007-09-17 / 2008-03-14
Status	Dieses Profil ist abgelaufen! Falls Sie denoch Interesse haben, kontaktieren Sie uns. (2008-09-11)

Kurzfassung

A small Dutch company developed a manure treatment system consisting of a separator, a water treatment plant and a purifier to produce water of drinking quality. This is an integral solution for air, soil and groundwater, which is unique. The production costs are reduced by increasing product quantities. The company is looking for an industrial partner with expertise in larger water treatment plants. It will be possible also to financially participate.

Details

The basic principle of the system developed by a Dutch company consists of separating the sludge of a farmyard into contaminated water and solids. The water is treated in a compact reactor with nitrification and denitrification processes. Via membranes the concentration of biomass in the reactor can be kept on a high level, and consequently short treatment is guaranteed (2 days). This makes the unit very compact, and consequently such units can be fabricated in a factory. Due to the aggressive circumstances the units are completely made of plastic.

The process can be used for the agricultural sector for treating urine of cows/horses/pigs and other animals, but is also suitable to treat waste from slaughter companies, etc. For smaller communities up to 2.500 people the unit can also be used and with a multiple of modular blocks, and the capacity can be increased gradually.

Manure collected underneath the grid in a stable consists of faeces and urine, which are mixed after some time. The manure mix causes ammonia problems. Via a pump the mix is transported to a miniature separator, which separates the sludge in water and solid.

The contaminated water is pumped in a non-aerated compartment together with aerated water from the aeration zone of the reactor. Non-aerated water plus fresh urine water plus nitrate water are mixed, and nitrogen gas leaves the reactor. By gravity force this water enters into an aeration zone, and ammonium is converted into nitrate. A pump takes part of the aerated biomass and pumps it into membranes. Clean water is leaving the membranes. This water can be further purified to drinking water quality. What will be left is a concentrated potassium liquid flow that can be used as fertiliser.

The company has experience in the development of innovative systems, and has the expertise to build the units in series. Together with other partners they have developed the electronic system for communication. The application can be used in the agricultural industry as well as on farmyards for cows/ horses/pigs and other animals producing urine. The unit purifies the contaminated water on the same place where it is produced. The unit also has good application possibilities in villages where people are concentrated. With simple piping it will be possible to feed the water treatment. Also in bigger cities it will be possible to install multiple units around the city. This prevents extreme losses of energy by pumping contaminated water over long distances via big sewer pipes.

The company has started to find solutions for worldwide problems. They started in the agricultural sector where manure was a huge problem that caused air, soil and groundwater pollution. Via the inventions of manure separation belts underneath the grids in pig stables, they found that ammonium formation and bad smell are reduced by 80 %. Manure sludge was split into solids and contaminated water. The water was 80 % of the total manure volume, and consequently there was a need to build a compact water treatment plant.

Innovative Aspects:
Many initiatives have come up in the past to solve the manure problem. All the solutions however covered a specific problem but there was nobody who had a solution that covered the problem as an integral solution. The problem was air, soil and groundwater pollution. The company has been working on a total solution for this problem. Belt separation to reduce air pollution and at the same time separating the manure slurry. Water treatment to reduce the groundwater problem (nitrate problem) and later the compact bioreactor to reduce soil pollution. Specifically the water treatment plant has no direct competitors as it has shown in patent searches in Europe and USA. No other system of similar technology is available. The concept is based on the fact that production costs are reduced by increasing product quantities. This is contrary to many other philosophies where increase in system capacity will decrease cost per unit. Second philosophy is that pollution needs to be treated on the spot where it has been created i.e. the farmyard. This prevents transport of highly contaminated flows over long distances. Manure causes the spread of harmful bacteria over longer distances, and consequently causes diseases to animals and humans.

Benefits for the farmer will be:
- Reduction of manure costs.
- Reduction of ammonium formation when removing manure immediately out of stables.
- Less ventilation.
- Better health of animals.
- Fewer odours.

By improving the atmosphere in the stable advantages of 10 % more meat could be obtained with 8 % less food (valid for pigs). This also asks for an improvement of the complete stable set-up. The environmental aspects could be tremendous:
- Reduction of odour.
- Sharp fall in nitrate concentration in groundwater.
- Reduction on earth warming (CO2 + heat) by trucks.
- Reduction in spreading diseases.