One of Ireland’s biggest biomass sources is the solid residues in livestock slurries, wastewater sludges and similar materials. These materials have historically been treated as wastes and were processed for disposal. These valuable resources however can be used for energy recovery and nutrient recycling.

This project was undertaken to develop the technology that will facilitate use of these materials as renewable energy resources as opposed to waste.

Concept

On a farm, sawdust is blended into animal slurries with the mixture filtered through a very high-pressure filtration process to remove the solids. The filtered solids are a compost-like material that can be cost-effectively collected and transported to a renewable energy site to convert into gas or electricity. This process is a very low-cost process that minimises the cost of renewable energy for the surrounding community.

At the farm, the residual slurry liquor is clarified to facilitate precipitation of the residual ammonia, which is removed in a crystaline form that can be used as a fertiliser. The treated water is quite pure, and can then be discharged with no environmental impact.

SEAI RDD support

Support from the SEAI Research, Development & Demonstration Funding Programme provided the resources to answer key questions related to development of a separation technology that could efficiently remove solids to a standard that allowed ammonia removal from the residual liquors.

Business opportunity

The project identified the business model and methods required to introduce this technology into the agricultural and wastewater management sectors.

The future

SLURRES will be scaled-up from laboratory/bench-scale to pilot scale.

Please e-mail contact@tcbbresource.ie if this is of interest to your business or resource recovery objectives.

SEAI Case Study
SLURRES has featured as an SEAI RD&D Case Study - see external SEAI site for details:
SEAI Case Study - SLURRES