A pilot project is underway in the Grand Lake St. Marys watershed to test a nutrient removal system for dairy and swine manure. The project is spearheaded by Ag Solutions in partnership with KDS Separation, Chemtron, and InNow Water & Environmental Services, Katharos Scientific, LLC, and a local farmer.
If proven effective and economical, the system could be a mobile or on-farm unit capable of dewatering manure and creating a salable calcium phosphate byproduct, thereby removing nutrients from the watershed.
Ag Solutions Coordinator Theresa Dirksen shared the following key points, photos, and videos:
- The KDS Separator is being used to dewater both liquid dairy and liquid swine manure
- Trials have been run both with and without polymer
- Testing is underway to analyze the raw manure, the separated solids, and the liquid effluents from each run
- This will help optimize the dewatering efficiency and economics
- Starting the week of March 19th, we hope to be running the liquid effluent through a secondary treatment unit, which uses no chemicals (the goal is to make the process chemical free so the only associated costs are electricity to run the system)
- The secondary unit uses ionized and magnetized air to float additional nutrients to the top of the liquid. These nutrients will be in a semi-solid form that will be scraped off the top
- Lab testing will also be conducted to determine efficiency
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- Swine Solids with Polymer
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- Swine Solids No Polymer
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- Dairy Solids No Chemical
Photos and videos provided by Theresa Dirksen, Ag Solutions