Management and treatment of manure: an example of a research-oriented approach

Abstract

This article presents a review of research and development studies on the management and treatment of livestock manure by a research group since the mid-90s. With a focus on solutions, it was necessary to combine basic scientific studies, aimed to determine the basic aspects of the processes, with the most widely applied ones, addressed to optimizing their application under field conditions. In this combination, molecular biology techniques have been very useful tools for determining the dynamics of bacterial populations in biological processes, both in the laboratory and at industrial level, together with mathematical modelling and numerical simulation, in order to understand the observed phenomena and to optimize design and facilities scaling. Manure should be considered a by-product of animal production instead of a waste. An appropriate technological strategy should be chosen in order to achieve proposed objectives and to obtain products with value for either the livestock owner or the market, helping to enhance crop production economy and to decrease the impact on water, soils and the atmosphere. The production of materials substituting mineral nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers should have an economic value and should help to establish a market of quality products. Anaerobic digestion is a key process for building sustainable technological strategies.

Keywords: manure, nutrients management plan, anaerobic digestion, anaerobic co-digestion, nutrients, recovery.