Animal slurries pose an environmental risk from multiple points of view. The common practice to return animal slurries to agricultural land to return its nutrient value needs to be reconsidered. The excessive use of antibiotics in livestock farming leads to more and more antibiotic resistance genes found in soil. Returning those nutrients, especially nitrogen, leads to excess amounts of nitrate found in groundwater ending up in surface waters and threatening the supply of potable water. Additionally, carbon dioxide and even worse nitrous oxide are emitted in huge quantities. Turning those animal slurries into biogas does not effectively reduce those risks.<br/>Therefore, new processes need to be developed or applied for the sustainable treatment of animal slurries. Hydrothermal processes are well suited to address the issues mentioned above and hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) in particular offers certain benefits. HTL is perfect for treating highly wet biomass processing it at 300–350 °C yielding a biocrude oil as the main product. Besides the biocrude, HTL also produces a liquid process water and a solid product comparable to hydrochar. Due to its high temperature and high pressure the products are hygienized. Nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphorus, can be recovered from the liquid and solid phase, turned into valuable fertilizing products, and applied where and when it is needed. Most important is the fuel value of those animal slurries – literally. The biocrude can be turned into actual fuel for transportation, non-road mobile machinery, and aviation.<br/>This talk will present major challenges dealing with animal slurries and the state-of-the-art of hydrothermal liquefaction with a focus on the work in progress of turning animal slurries into a variety of value-added products.

The fuel value of animal slurries: Saving nutrients and the environment

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ACS Fall 2022

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