Evaluation Of a Conveyor Belt Waste Collection System For Swine – Fecal Drying Efficiency And Ammonia Emission Reductions

North Carolina State University Swine Nutrient Management Research from 2002. Environmental concerns with concentrated, intensively managed swine facilities have necessitated the re-evaluation of management practices for waste disposal. With the trend towards more intensive swine production, focus has been placed on manure storage and utilization. Current waste management practices in the swine industry are a slatted floor with either liquid storage under the slats (slurry system) or a flush system with lagoon storage (Keener et al., 1999). These waste systems yield a waste that usually ranges between 1-10 % dry matter, which limits the flexibility of its application primarily due to transportation costs. Solidliquid separation techniques like tangential flow separation, settling basins, and screen separators have all been used for the improvement of manure handling because the reduction of solids in the liquid bulk facilitates pumping and handling. However, since all these technologies separate waste after it has been mixed and stored, they do nothing to mitigate odor and ammonia emissions within the hog house or at the storage facility. They also demonstrate a low efficiency of solids recovery from the swine waste.