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• https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/691404

Bijkomende informatie

Ashleigh Farms Limited are successful pig rearers for the pork meat industry. Currently they own over 1,500 sows that produce a combined total of 37,000 pigs per year. Regulations and targets in place to control pollution and contamination are leaving pig farmers with less and less economical use for pig slurry. In order to improve margins and remain in business pig farmers require an innovative solution.

Pig manure is typically used as an organic fertiliser for crop land or as a feedstock for anaerobic digestion (whereby microorganisms break down biodegradable compounds in oxygen free environments), for the production of biogas. However, challenges occur in the fertiliser sector when it’s nitrate values exceed what the cropland can consume. Regarding anaerobic digestion, while a good feedstock, it typically has very low biogas potential and consequently operating a biogas plant with pig manure alone is often unviable.

Making pig slurry anaerobically digestible for biogas, necessitates adding sources of organic carbon at a ratio of 8:1, rendering it uneconomical for farmers. However, biowave developed an innovative microwave pre-treatment technique that increases the compatibility of pig slurry for anaerobic digestion. Additionally, the system has great potential for enhancing biogas production from other typical feedstocks such as energy crops, cattle slurry and food waste.

The biowave process converts the hard carbon in the feedstock which bacteria cannot digest, into soluble carbon, thus improving the Carbon:Nitrogen ratio and so also the total bio-available carbon for anaerobic digestion. Organic material is pumped to the system and microwave energy disrupts the cell structure within the material making it significantly more digestible – resulting in higher biogas yields and faster anaerobic digestion.
Removing the necessity to add organic material increases the biogas yield from slurry by over 40 %, offering farmers a means to utilize ever-growing amounts of slurry.