Sustainable Water and Waste Management at Livestock Farms | Case Studies

An introduction to this case study

In South Africa, the annual volume of animal manure is in the order of 3 million tons. 25% of animal manure is used as fertilizers, with a small portion used as energy for heating, while the balance is wasted. The value of animal manure lies in the key nutrients it contains for soil and plants, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, and magnesium. This presents an opportunity to farmers to exploit the circular economy potential of animal manure sludge.

To prepare animal manure sludge for utilization in a circular economy, the first step is to separate the solids from the liquid allowing for both solids and liquids to be beneficially processed. Sinowatek offers the best available separation technology (the Fournier Rotary Press^TM) to dewater animal manure sludge.

Water is vital for all living organisms, and it is the number one nutrition for all livestock. With clean living spaces, high-quality clean drinking water and germ-free silage (feed), livestock will prosper and so will the farming business. These goals are achievable when the Sulafect^TM disinfectant from Sinowatek is used in all activities and stages of livestock rearing.

Technologies used in this case study:

Look at how we deal with the followingchallenges:

1. Animal manure sludge dewatering

Animal manure sludge dewatering

As the volume of livestock farming waste increases, the management thereof requires additional attention in that the manure can differ widely in consistency.
‍

The handling of liquid, semi-solid and solid sludges require different handling techniques and equipment to streamline the production, collection, transfer, treatment, storage and utilisation.
‍

Belt and screw presses are currently the most common equipment used to dewater manure sludges. The low capture rate of suspended solids and low separation efficiency with high maintenance costs requires a rethink of these methods.

‍

Challenge:‍

Currently, dewatering and composting represent the most common methods used to treat and valorize animal manure sludge allowing their utilization as a soil enhancer. The use of dewatered and composted livestock manure is favoured over untreated liquid manure due to its lower volume and smaller particle size, allowing easier handling and facilitating more uniform application.
‍

The Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) of the filtrate (wastewater) from the dewatering process must be kept under control. These levels must adhere to environmental regulations when released or reused.
‍

The dewatering of sludge produced from animal manure is currently performed with belt and screw press technology to reduce effluent charges and BOD levels. These presses are found to be problematic because of high maintenance and low efficiency.

‍

Solution:‍

Sinowatek presents the Fournier Rotary Press^TM to address the problems mentioned above, since the characteristics of this technology guarantee low energy consumption and separation efficiency with low maintenance costs.
‍

With a cake dryness around 35% total solids (TS) and a capture rate of more than95%, this technology ensures that the total suspended solids (TSS) in the filtrate is so low that little additional treatment processes for the filtrate are necessary for environmental regulation purposes.

‍

Benefits for the client:

The Fournier Rotary Press^TM ensures high consistency and good cake dryness using very little electrical power while operating with minimum operator assistance.
The higher cake dryness reduces the biological oxygen demand (BOD) of the residual water.
The dryer waste is lighter in weight, resulting in lower storage and logistic costs.
The Fournier Rotary Press^TM is an expandable technology, allowing up to 8 channels to be added to the unit to accommodate future increases in sludge volumes.

2. Clean disinfected water and feed, guarantee healthy livestock

Clean disinfected water and feed, guarantee healthy livestock

Important factors influencing animal health and performance are their living spaces, drinking water, feeding and medicine.

‍

Challenges:‍

The living spaces (all surfaces and equipment) of livestock should be kept clean and disinfected with environmentally friendly products to ensure healthy animals.
The availability of enough high-quality clean water is directly connected with the amount of consumed feed and the performance of the livestock.
Contamination of silage must be avoided at all costs.
Livestock with low immune systems requires medicine, increasing costs and a lower quality product.

‍

Solution:‍

The application of INNOWATECH Anolyte® tradename Sulafect^TM will address all the important areas of animal husbandry.
‍

The installation of an INNOWATECH Aquadron® system can provide sufficient quantities of Sulafect^TM for the following purposes:

Disinfected drinking water.
Removal of biofilm in pipes and troughs prevents recontamination because of bacteria regeneration.
Decontamination of living spaces through fogging or spraying of SulafectTM
Disinfection of the entire water reticulation system that provides residual disinfection capacity at the end point prevents reinfection by wild animals and birds.
Sulafect^TM applied to silage before it is closed off prevents mould formation.
Sulafect^TM is also used very effectively for the treatment of open wounds.

‍

Benefit for Client:‍

If the drinking water, wash water, silage, living space surface etc. are treated properly with Sulafect^TM all the activities and life stages of the animals are influenced with advantages as follow:

Cleaner disinfected living spaces for the animals.
Livestock with stronger immune systems.
The growth rate of the animals will be faster (feed conversion).
Higher production numbers (e.g., eggs)
Lower medicine demand.
Lower mortality rate.

The installation of the INNOWATECH Aquadron® system is capital-intensive, but the running costs are very low. The maintenance of the system is also very low as routine checks are mostly all that is required. When using the correct salt grade, the reactor lasts 30 000hrs. With a very short payback period and increased profitability combined with the environmental benefits, this system is truly an asset for a livestock farm

Back to case study overview

Let's talk about your specific challenges in this field.

GET IN
TOUCH

VIEW
SERVICES