AR-News: NCSU expects results of hog waste study in July

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http://newsobserver.com/news/story/3452528p-3067999c.html
NCSU expects results of hog waste study in July 


The Associated Press


The first results of a study on the viability of alternative disposal methods for hog waste should be released in July, the study center's director said Thursday. 
N.C. State University researchers have spent nearly four years evaluating technology to eliminate bad odors and to reduce the amount of nutrients and pathogens entering the air and groundwater from the waste. 

Mike Williams, the chief researcher for the project bankrolled by two leading national pork producers, said the rest of the study results will be released in 2005. 

In 2000, the state and Smithfield Foods and Premium Standard Farms agreed that the companies would pay $17.3 million to find "environmentally superior" methods to dispose of waste. The agreements came after hog lagoons flooded after Hurricane Floyd, capping several years of conflict over the pits that hold liquid waste that is later sprayed on fields. 

The disposal method evaluations were supposed to be completed in two years. Williams said economic data have been slow on many of the 16 methods being investigated. 

"For environmental performance, we see systems that are in fact working," Williams said after a presentation Thursday to the legislature's Environmental Review Commission. 

The 16 methods can be divided into three categories. In one, the waste is cooked at high temperatures to kill pathogens inside, and methane gas, which can be converted to electricity, is collected. 

Another method focuses on converting the ammonia associated with foul odors to harmless nitrogen gas. The third concept has insect larvae eating solids in the waste. The larvae are then cooked and ground into animal food. 







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