Various reports from environmental organizations explain that manure, mainly cow manure, is a headache for the agricultural sector. Given this, the fertilizer recycling method could be, in addition to a trend, the alternative to develop a sustainable fertilizer.
A study carried out by scientists at Cornell University indicates that the process known as Pyrolysis can retain essential nutrients to transform manure into ecological fertilizer. Research published by the scientific journal Nature, explains that manure can be converted into a sustainable fertilizer without oxygen from biochar or charcoal.
With such an alternative to make fertilizers, dairy farmers could stop storing manure in farm ponds or spreading it over nearby fields. “Manure is often a problem and emits large amounts of CO2 into the environment, we have more and more complications to get rid of it,” added Johannes Lehmann, professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University in the United States. United.
According to the Lehmann team, using the pyrolysis process of solid manure and the retention of the liquid in the biochar, a fertilizer can be created from organic waste. Additionally, commercial nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizer is created using carbon inputs, including natural gas, sulfur, coal, and rock deposits.
According to statistics from Cornell University, New York has an average manure waste of 12.8 million metric tons per year. That amount could easily fertilize about 43 thousand corn plants, and giving a business alternative to farmers and ranchers in the region. “Developing sustainable fertilizers may be the most important factor in saving money and alleviating environmental problems,” the document can read.
Other results explain that the volume of the solid waste product of manure, which is 90% water, is being reduced and the pyrolysis process can reduce its moisture to 0%. In this way, the nutrients remain almost intact, eliminating almost all bad odors, and especially greenhouse gases on a large scale.
The growing concern for the environment has led agricultural producers and ranchers to seek other methods of fertilization. A key point to detect in the manure generated by animals a source of money and sustainability. Now Cornell University scientists are focused on being able to develop the sustainable fertilizer on a large scale and test it in other regions of the United States.
