Olds College will be working with a Calgary-based environmental company to improve on a process to recycle nutrients and water from manure.
Livestock Water Recycling Inc. wants to refine a process it has developed for recycling manure that separates the nutrients from water within the manure.
A trial for refining the process, where nutrients are taken from the manure and tested for how well they assist in growing crops, will be held at the college.
The trial will run from eight months to a year.
“We're able to do a composting trial with it, and apply it in growing crops and see if they do as well as a (commercial) fertilizer,” said Beatrice Amar, a research associate with Olds College's Centre of Innovation who will be leading the project.
“It will really verify our ability to successfully produce nutrient-rich fertilizers. Once we are able to analyze the output from Olds College, then we can determine their effectiveness for growing crops and it could potentially (reduce) the need of using commercial fertilizers,” added Alissa Woo, a marketing coordinator with LWR.
Using manure from their own farm would save farmers money on the handling and transfer costs of commercial fertilizers, she said.
The company has an agreement with a dairy operation in New York state to supply the manure for the project. The college is waiting until the company can transport the manure to the college and then the trial will start. The company hopes to start the trial by the end of September.
Amar said it should take roughly six to eight months to compost the manure and make sure that there are no pathogens in the compost. The next stage of the process would be to take the compost and use it to do a crop-growing trial in the college's greenhouse and then compare the results to a commercial fertilizer.
If the project is successful, it could be used on local farming operations at some point in the future, Amar said. Such a process would be better than the current practice of direct injection of manure in fields, she added.
“If this works then we can show that composting can be done on the farm itself and it adds value to the already available waste. It's a very complete process. It's like a win-win for the farmer if they adopt this recycling of manure in the form of nutrients and water,” she said.
LWR worked with the college in 2011 to separate solids from wastewater in manure, filter and treat the wastewater and test it at a few points during that process, eventually making the water clean enough for livestock to drink again. That project lasted six months.
Woo said since the company already has a good working relationship with the college, it was a good opportunity to continue the partnership,
Livestock Water Recycling received a $50,000 Alberta Innovation voucher to conduct the research.
