Its been 5 years I wonder what that whole setup looks like now on the farm!

I am a chemistry teacher in Delaware just on the other side of the Maryland border. We have the same conditions and issues as the Marylanders. I am so showing this in my class.

Bonus of grinding it up for the reactor process is that the resultant solids are a lot easier to use in a field, and can easily be spread by standard farm machinery. You could use an extruder and pelletise it into something that can be regarded as a pellet fertiliser for fields, applied by a standard spreader that every farmer has. Bonus of the extruder is that the pelletising will also be able to flash sterilise the manure as well, so that pathogens are not as easily spread as well.

"It's got what plants crave" ahaha nice

Does manure mined and processed in this way, removed of phosphorus, still hold the same varying analyte concentrations? After all that processing? And doesn't the ratio of phosphorus to other minerals, like potassium, magnesium and calcium, matter? If this were to be scaled up, where would all the magnesium and potassium come from for phosphorus extraction? And while phosphorus is regulated, are no other minerals also responsible for these coastal blooms increasing? It seems to me people should suck it up and just transport the manure to other areas - that would obviously be best for the environment, even taking into account transportation (this processing does not seem particularly green). I'm not convinced this process does more than act as a loophole around oddly specific phosphorus regulations.

@jonathanberlingeri5237

6 жыл бұрын

Yes the ratio of phosphorous to nitrogen and other minerals does matter. Most farmers are applying manures to meet their Nitrogen requirement. In doing so they are over applying phosphorous. Removing the phosphorus is improving the balance of nutrients for most crops. Generally speaking the waterways in the north east are phosphorous limited and most prone to algal blooms in response to phosphorous enrichment. The magnesium and potassium are also in the manure! All this system is adding is low weight molecular acids and CO2. Other solutions for altering the costs of the transporting the manure are screw presses, anaerobic digesters and other drying systems. The cost to transport litter or manure is very large. While I agree that it is of primary importance to prevent contamination of water ways there is no economically feasible way to do so without reducing the weight of the manure for transport. CAFO's like this are importing large quantities of feed, fertilizers, and bedding (inputs) and exporting much less cause there to be imbalances in the nutrient cycles. Saying people should suck it up and transport it is valid but there is likely other more economically advantageous routes. Why not better use the secondary products of their inputs? Farmer profit margins are general somewhat slim and it would be a hardship for many farmers to have to pay for the transport of manures. Unlike poultry manure the manure from dairys is much heavier, as it is a larger percentage water. Each dairy cow produces about 100 pounds of manure a day. The value of this manure as an amendment is exceeded by the cost of transporting it merely 10 miles.

@michaelb2211

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks for this answer, it's helpful. Did you mean the waterways in the northeast are phosphorus rich, thus more prone to algal blooms? Ah, I see about the counter cations. Regarding magnesium and potassium - see 5:16 in the video. The amalgam, or complex, of phosphorus that crashes out takes other salts with it, right? Those salts are also being depleted from the manure then, so are they being removed from manure with phosphorus in the proper ratio for optimal fertilization? In that case, maybe the dried product would be 'balanced'. But it would be hard to say then that any benefit in reducing algal blooms is just due to just phosphorus removal, since more salts than just phosphorus are being removed? And are steps in place to keep the stripped manure and phosphorus extract pH balanced? Even in a best case scenario, perhaps just dumping tons of stripped, decaying carbon matter, even devoid of phosphorus, in the ocean might also cause algal blooms. Has this possibility been tested?