Nutrient value, odour emission and energy production of manure as influenced by anaerobic digestion and separation

Crop fields can be fertilised by application of manure because manure contains fertilising elements such as N and P, and organic matter that enhances soil physical properties. However, application of manure may also cause P and N pollution of surroundings, odour emission and waste of energy. A solution may be to apply an improved liquid manure fraction resulting from manure separation and anaerobic digestion. As previous studies have only focused on the factors individually, we carried out here a system analysis with the aim of optimising all the factors simultaneously. We tested three solid-liquid separations on raw manure and manure pre-digested in a biogas reactor, with the separation treatments being coagulation, flocculation and filtration, which differed mainly with respect to coagulant volume, and the N:P ratio of the products was measured. The NH3 and odour emission was determined from the liquid fractions during storage and after soil application, while the energy produced at anaerobic digestion of the solid fractions was measured. Our results show that energy production at digestion increased with decreasing coagulant volume, but was largely unaffected by anaerobic digestion whether performed both before and after or only after separation. Odour generation was reduced by pre-digestion. With increasing coagulant volume and without pre-digestion, the nutrient value of the liquid fraction was improved the most, as shown by an increase in the N/P ratio of the liquid fraction and by a decrease in NH3 emissions from stores and fields. The data proved that mechanical separation of raw manure, added coagulant and polymer, followed by anaerobic digestion of the solid fraction was the optimum strategy from a whole animal manure management perspective. The coagulant volume can be adjusted to favour either nutrient value and NH3 emission, or energy production.