Clean and environmentally friendly animal waste technologies for fertilizer and energy production

This project aims to research and develop novel, environmentally friendly technologies which from livestock manure can recover the nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P), in the form of marketable fertilizers. Energy production technology is optimally an integrated part of manure management systems and is included as an important, but minor R&D activity.
Animal manure contains large amounts of plant nutrients and organic carbon, which if left untreated, may potentially pollute surface waters and is a source of greenhouse gases (GHG), ammonia (NH3) and odour. Phosphorous (P) is a very limited global resource which has a supply horizon of 60-130 years. Continuously wasting this limited plant nutrient resource constitutes a risk to the global feed and food supply. The energy rich organic material may supply 3-4% of the Danish energy consumption.
Novel technologies for sustainable management and utilisation of animal manure and biowaste are necessary because the continued increase in specialisation and scale of operation of animal farms makes it difficult to comply with new environmental regulations of waste management on limited land, and attractive due to the rapidly increasing prices on the resources of fuels and fertilisers. .
The vision of this project is to i) develop unit operations to treat slurry and recover plant nutrients into marketable products and ii) to integrate environmental, nutrient recovery and bioenergy technologies for animal manure and biowaste processing in a whole system approach to ensure cost-effectiveness. The project will provide verified analyses (systems modelling, life cycle assessment (LCA), environmental economics) on the impact of these new environmentally friendly bio-energy technologies. This is needed for policy making as well as when marketing on a rapidly growing world market for cleantech.