Trident Nutrient Recovery at Prairies Edge Dairy Farms

At the 2017 Indiana Dairy Forum at French Lick Resort, IN we attended Carl Ramsey’s presentation on Prairies Edge Dairy Farm’s manure management and nutrient recovery system.

Learn how the Trident Nutrient Recovery system changed the way Prairies Edge (formerly Fair Oaks Farms) manages the manure from their 14,000 cows. In the first step the Trident Rotary Screen conditions the manure and removes the large fiber, which can be used on farm as bedding (after a dewatering process with the Trident Screw Press) or as in this case land applied to improve the organic matter of the soil. The remaining manure that contains the nutrients is sent to the Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) system for a polymerization process to achieve further liquid-solid separation. The floated nutrient rich solids are skimmed off and gravity flow as sludge to the Trident MD Press. The MD Press dewaters the sludge with the concentrated nutrients to about 20-25% solids content. The result is a highly dewatered nutrient format that allows land application or off-farm transport at significantly less costs. In this particular situation the nutrient cake will be sold and transported to a near by fertilizer plant as feedstock for custom fertilizer production. The effluent water (about 85-90% Phosphorus removed) with less than 1% solids can be efficiently land applied through the farms centre pivot irrigation system or used as operational water on the farm.

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