Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives
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ARDI 2008-09 Activity Report
Hog Manure: From Waste to Gardener’s Dream
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Nazim Cicek cheerfully observes brown sludge bubbling in tiny reactors in his state-of-the-art lab. The slimy stuff is hog manure collected from lagoons at four different Manitoba barns. It’s all in a day’s work for the University of Manitoba biosystems engineer. Cicek, with the help of an ARDI grant, is figuring out how to adapt some of the world’s most innovative waste management technologies to local conditions.
“The reactors are really fancy fermentors,” Cicek says. “We’re providing housing for the microbes to do their thing.” The microbes in Cicek’s reactors start a process that releases nutrients held in solid manure into the liquid portion. Once freed, nutrients like phosphorus can then be recovered in a crystal form called struvite. What struvite offers the world is a renewable source of phosphorous, an essential element used to grow crops.
Too much phosphorous, however, leads to excessive algae growth in waterways, as we’ve seen in Lake Winnipeg. This excess phosphorous comes into lakes and rivers from municipal wastewater discharges, soil erosion, field and lawn fertilizers, household cleaning products and animal waste. Hog producers are among those who can expect to have to meet some tough regulations related to phosphorous in the future.
That’s why Cicek’s work is important. It will provide Manitoba hog producers with cost-effective ways to remove phosphorous from manure without having to abandon existing lagoon systems. Cicek and his team of students are now trying to reproduce the microbial stew they’ve created in the lab over at the lagoon. They want to leave the land and water in great shape while at the same time helping hog producers to create and market their own struvite, a valuable slow-release fertilizer that gardeners’ know is a great way to achieve lush plots and flourishing plants.
Synopsis
The research question: Can we recover phosphorous from hog manure and create a commercial fertilizer?
The research team: Dr. Nazim Cicek, Joe Ackerman (PhD student), Elsie Jordann (Master’s student), Harmon Livingstone (undergraduate summer student), Victor Wei (technician)
Why the research matters: Hog producers need ways to remove excess phosphorous from livestock manure stored on their lands, preventing eutrophication (early aging) of Manitoba’s lakes and rivers.
How this research will help farmers: New technologies will be applied to existing farm management practices to remove phosphorous from livestock waste and at the same time produce a commercial fertilizer.
ARDI grant: $72,000
Partners: Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies, The Puratone Corporation, The National Centre for Livestock and the Environment, Syn-Tex, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Research timetable: September 2008 to September 2010
Learn more: International Water Association’s Nutrient Management in Wastewater Treatment Processes Conference in Krakow, Poland, September 2009. Western Canada Water Conference in Winnipeg, Canada, September 2009.
