SBIR-STTR Award

Atmospheric emissions of organic compounds from swine production facilities represent a significant economical and environmental problem facing modern animal agriculture. Many existing emission reduction methods have serious economic and technical limitations that have served to limit their application in the animal production industry. Thus, despite the extensive research efforts, there are currently few emission reduction strategies available to animal producers for control of livestock waste emissions. The proposed program is directed at demonstrating the feasibility of polymer biocovers for the reduction of organic and inorganic emissions from swine waste lagoons. This process is based on establishing a permeable, floating engineering environment over the highly anaerobic stored waste material. This treatment process is decoupled anaerobic liquid/slurry fraction, thus, airborne pollutants are reduced or eliminated without significantly altering the nutrient value of the manure. The proposed design differs from present biocover methods in that (1) the filter substrate will be resistant to structural biodegradation - a problem that plagues current crop residue biocovers, and (2) the filter substrate environment will be optimized specifically for reduction swine waste air pollutants. The proposed process promises to be economically-feasible based on the preliminary analysis

Anticipated Results/Potential Commercial Applications of Research:
Successful development of a biocover substrate material capable of reducing waste gas emissions from animal waste lagoons would be expected to impact other agricultural and industrial processes that use wastewater lagoons or other wastewater storage facilities. Examples of industries that may benefit from this technology include wastewater impoundments at sugar beet processing sites, human wastewater lagoons and treatment plants, and wastewater impoundments used by the paper and wood pulp industry. The gain realized from reducing livestock waste emissions with this method would be expected to have a multifaceted impact on economic, social, political, and regulatory aspects of animal agriculture.