As a major swine-producing state, North Carolina (United States) has adopted incentives for energy recovery from swine waste and environmental performance standards for new swine facilities. However, there are no treatment performance requirements for existing farms; therefore, management of swine waste in open lagoons with spray irrigation for disposal is nearly universal in North Carolina. Emissions of nitrogen to the atmosphere and the landscape from large industrial swine farms have led to concerns over the impact on environmental quality and human health. Accordingly, there has been increasing interest in developing alternate treatment methods for swine waste, including methods that allow for energy recovery. To evaluate the technical feasibility and limitations of coupling biological nitrogen removal with anaerobic digestion of swine waste for energy recovery, we operated a pilot nitrification/denitrification system at an 8,000-head finishing farm already practicing full-scale anaerobic digestion in covered lagoons with methane capture. Of primary interest was the extent to which alkalinity and biodegradable chemical oxygen demand (COD) in the digested waste could meet the stoichiometric requirements for oxidation of ammonium-N (AN) and denitrification, respectively. The system removed 98% of the influent AN and 83% of influent total nitrogen. Approximately 75% of influent total COD was oxidized, mostly as electron equivalents for denitrification. Alkalinity in digested waste may not meet the alkalinity demand from nitrification, depending on the extent of denitrification. Stripping of ammonia into the gas phase was negligible, but 8.2% of the ammonium-N removed was converted to nitrous oxide-N.
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