Integrating Emerging Technologies to Improve Environmental and Economic Impact
The US Dairy Adoption Of Anaerobic Digestion Systems Integrating Multiple Emerging Clean Technologies: Climate, Environmental, And Economic Impacts project aimed to quantify the climate, air, water, nutrient and economic impacts of integrating emerging, next-generation technologies within AD systems on U.S. dairies. Existing evidence suggested that addressing nutrient concerns and improving project returns on investment could enhance AD adoption rates in the U.S., and generate additional environmental benefits. The project focused on three technologies that were developed by the project team through leveraged research.
Project Objectives:
- Enhancement of pyrolysis through modification of biochar for nutrient recovery (NR), with exploration of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) capture
- Agronomic evaluation of AD-derived fertilizers at greenhouse scale: surface-modified biochar, organic P-enriched solids, ammonium sulfate solution, and struvite crystals
- Modeling of various adoption scenarios for AD systems technologies, and the impacts on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, nutrient flows, and crop yields
- Techno-economic analysis of adoption scenarios
- Extension of research to key stakeholders positioned to facilitate adoption of AD systems (e.g. industry, regulatory agencies, and private carbon market entities)
Figure 2: Various manure-derived soil amendments: (1) anaerobically digested liquid manure; (2) ammonium sulfate solution from WSU AIRTRAP systems (USPTO 2011); (3) phosphorus-rich solids from AIRTRAP; (4) slow release ammonium and phosphorus containing struvite crystals from both dairy and municipal waste-water systems (USPTO 2010), and (5) phosphorus-enriched bio-char (Streuble et al. 2011)
Funding for this project is provided by USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture
2012-2015 USDA NIFA AFRI Agriculture and Natural Resources Science for Climate Variability And Change Grant #WNP02012-00881
Major Products
Biochar and Nutrient Recovery
- Zhao, Q., Ma, J., Zeb, I., Yu, L., Chen, S., Zheng, Y.M., and Frear, C. (2015) Ammonia recovery from anaerobic digester effluent through direct aeration, Chemical Engineering Journal 279, 31-37.
- Liaw, S.S., Frear, C., Lei, W., Zhang, S., Garcia-Perez, M. (2015) Anaerobic digestion of C1-C4 light oxygenated organic compounds derived from the torrefaction of lignocellulosic materials, Fuel Processing Technology, 131: 150-158.
- Kennedy, N., Zhao, Q., Ma, J., Chen, S., and Frear, C. (2015) The selective removal of H2S over CO2 from biogas in a bubble column using pretreated digester effluent. Separation and Purification Technology 144, 240-247.
- Jiang, A., Zhang, T., Zhao, Q., Chen, S., Li, X., Frear, C. (2014) Evaluation of an integrated ammonia stripping, recovery, and biogas scrubbing system for use with anaerobically digested dairy manure, Biosystems Engineering, 119: 117-126.
Agronomics of recovered products
- Collins, H.P., Kimura, E., Frear, C. Kruger, C.E. 2016. Phosphorus uptake by potato from fertilizers recovered from anaerobic digestion. Agron. J. 108:2036-2049. doi:10.2134/agronj2015.0302
Economics
- Astill, G.M. and C.R. Shumway. Anaerobic Digester System Enterprise Budget Calculator
- Astill, G.M. and C.R. Shumway. “A Real Options Analysis with Learning Spillovers: Investment in Anaerobic Digester Technology.” Washington State University, School of Economic Sciences Working Paper 2016-1, February 2016.
- Astill, G.M. and C.R. Shumway. “The Market Impact of Widespread Adoption of Anaerobic Digestion with Nutrient Recovery Technology in US Dairy Industry.” Washington State University, School of Economic Sciences Working Paper 2016-2, March 2016.
- Astill, G.M. and C.R. Shumway. “Profits from pollutants: Economic feasibility of integrated anaerobic digester and nutrient management systems” Journal of Environmental Management. 2016. In Press.
Extension
- Anaerobic Digestion Webinar Series – Emerging Technologies to Improve Environmental and Economic Impact
- Anaerobic Digestion Systems Series (Peer Reviewed Extension Publications)
Modeling
- Tariq M. Khalil, Stewart S. Higgins, Pius M. Ndegwa, Craig S. Frear, Claudio O. Stöckle, Assessing the effect of different treatments on decomposition rate of dairy manure, Journal of Environmental Management, Volume 182, 1 November 2016, Pages 230-237, ISSN 0301-4797