GRRO News
TECHNOLOGY THAT TURNS ANIMAL WASTE INTO
FERTILIZER ENTERS FINAL TEST PHASE
Eldora/New Providence, Iowa – Florida Specifier march 2006 Issue
By MELORA GRATTAN
From pigs and cattle to chickens and turkeys, animal feeding operations
of all kinds may have a new way to manage mounds of waste and turn a
pollution problem into a beneficial product.
Global Resource Recovery Organization Inc., an
Iowa-based firm with a Florida office in Bradenton, has entered into a
second agreement and formed a joint venture company with Farm
Pilot Project Coordination Inc. to commercialize its cyclonic air
drying technology known as the Tempest Drying System.
At a 2,400-head swine AFO in Iowa, the Tempest
system will be used to capture 75 percent of the animal waste
nutrients, eliminating liquid manure each day and the need for any
on-site, long-term storage. After the waste has been processed, the
farmer will be left with a dry fertilizer product that can be used or
stored as needed.
"The first agreement was a technology demonstration.
The second one will get the system into a commercially viable product
that is affordable for the farmer and produces worthwhile results,"
said Bob Monley, general manager of the Tampa-based FPPC, a non-profit
organization that was designated by Congress to help implement
innovative treatment technologies to address AFO waste. "We've already
established that the technology works, and we think it is well
positioned to be part of the wave of the future."
This future lies in dry scrape systems and
animal agriculture that conserves water and energy, Monley said. The
Tempest is part of that because it works well on dry waste, requiring
no additional water or energy to make the process work, he continued.
FPPC's main objective is to encourage the wise
management and conservation of natural resources while providing AFOs
with opportunities for profitable operations. The organization is
specifically striving to reduce the nutrient content of the animal
waste stream by at least 75 percent via alternative technologies.
Funding for its current 14 pilot projects in seven
states, including Florida, comes from Congress and is overseen by the
U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource Conservation Service.
One of the main aspects this final round of
testing should accomplish is optimizing the scale of the system, said
Loran Balvanz, president and CEO of GRRO.
"We will test how small we can make the equipment,
or the feasibility of using a big mobile system that can be jointly
owned by farmers in a co-op, or whether the system would be best
utilized by a service provider that can come and go as needed," Balvanz
explained. "We hope to be operational in mid-summer or early fall and
aspects such as scalability should be clear fairly soon." After the
pilot system becomes operational, it will be tested and the effluent
monitored for a full year.
One of the key concepts of the technology is not
procrastinating by keeping the waste in holding areas and lagoons for
weeks or months at a time, Balvanz said. "You can treat 2,400 gallons
of manure a day versus one million gallons after a few months."
The Tempest's cyclonic process uses high volumes of
high velocity air to separate material components in terms of specific
gravity, particle size and/or particle shape. Three phases-water,
solids and air-are being processed and separated, according to company
literature.
Instead of changing the phase of water that is
removed, the majority of the water is atomized in its liquid state and
the fine particles, 10 to 200 microns, are carried away in the air
stream. There is also some minor water removal conducted through
evaporation.
When determining the extent of water removed by
using the system, considerations include air velocity, system
pressures, water constituent and ambient conditions. Water that is
chemically bound in a synthetic matrix is difficult to remove with low
heat processes and could be the upper limit of removal with the Tempest.
The system's components include a small input feed
hopper that meters waste material into the feed system at an even,
controlled flow rate. The Tempest Product Conditioner is a jacketed,
insulated "U-trough" conveyor where the exhaust gas from the diesel
engine or hot water from the boiler is directed through the trough
jacket. Here, air temperatures are usually above 180 degrees F.
Next, heated materials are dropped into the eductor,
which injects them into the drying air system using compressed air to
move it into the air stream and help break apart the feed material into
the smallest possible particle size. Then, a centrifugal blower driven
by a diesel engine or electric motor drives the material through the
drying system.
The pre-separation cyclone starts the drying process
by using high-speed collisions to further reduce the size of the
particles and expose as much water as possible to the surface. This
begins the mechanical removal of the water, which is continued in the
separation cyclone with centrifugal, impact, kinetic and frictional
forces.
The solids drop out of the bottom of the separation
cyclone into a discharge auger where they are conveyed to a holding
container where the end product is stored. Meanwhile, the water
molecules and air are sent to a wet scrubber that slows and cools them.
The water molecules condense and are removed with any remaining dust,
as well as soluble compounds and odorous volatiles.
The end result is that most of the waste's volume is
gone, leaving a bucket versus a truckload of material. "This leaves us
with all the nutrients and a significant reduction in the weight, which
is great for everyone," said Monley.
As far as Florida applications other than dairy and
poultry waste, Balvanz said he sees strong possibilities in areas such
as biosolids. The machine produces a Class A product with less water
and no residuals. It can also be blended with yard waste to produce a
compost product that he hopes to demonstrate soon in Florida.
The system was recently used at a pulp and paper
mill where it contributed to lowering the plant's overall air
emissions, Balvanz said. "Then, there is beet waste, orange peels, and
on, and on."
Florida Specifier, March 2006 issue. @ Copyright 2006, National
Technical Communications Co., Inc. All rights
reserved.