AGASSIZ, B.C. – Recovering energy and fertilizer from livestock has never made more sense or dollars.
New research by Agriculture Canada and the University of British Columbia may create income opportunities for producers while reducing the environmental load of livestock operations.
Don Mavinic and Victor Lo of UBC have developed systems that cost effectively transform waste from humans and animals into valuable fertilizer products.
The system is already being used to turn human waste into mono-ammonium phosphate (MAP) fertilizer for use in the horticulture and turf industry. The city of Edmonton now uses a nutrient reactor built by Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc., based on the UBC research, to turn human waste into Crystal Green, the trade name for the fertilizer.
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“The stuff is a premium product that commands a premium price. It takes about nine months to dissolve in the soil, so it delivers nutrients over an expanded time frame: a very desirable attribute,” said Mavinic during a federal funding announcement that will transfer the technology to the livestock industry.
Lo said $203,500 in new funding will allow the UBC engineering project to be performed at the jointly operated UBC-Agriculture Canada research farm at Agassiz, B.C.
“Energy prices are up. Fertilizer is way up, as every farmer knows. (Phosphate) loading on agricultural soils is an issue,” he said.
The integrated system used at the farm separates liquids and solids. Solids move into compost, while liquids are broken into components for methane production and into nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers through a crystallizing process.
The volatile fatty acids responsible for many of the agricultural odours become energy; the fertilizer components can be sold.
Mavinic said the research performed so far indicates that the system, if implemented on a farm with more than 100 head of beef or dairy cattle where manure is collected in feeding or milking operations, could potentially pay for itself in four to six years on carbon credits alone.
The technology reduces greenhouse gas emissions by four to six tonnes per tonne of fertilizer produced, making it a source of tradable carbon credits.
“Then you get to sell the fertilizer as well. This is a potential revenue stream for farmers that will help to defray some of those increased input costs,” he said.
Lo said small and mid-sized producers could centralize processing to make the technology cost effective.
