MANURE SOLIDS SEPARATION BY FILTRATION WITH FOUR CROP RESIDUES

Abstract

Laboratory research was conducted to determine the effectiveness of using five crop residues as filters toseparate solids from liquid swine manure. Solids removal efficiencies and plugging characteristics were examined. Oatstraw, soybean stubble, and corn stover were found to be effective filter materials; corncobs and ground corncobs werenot. As expected, solids removal efficiencies were higher for manure with 6.0% solids initially than for manure with 1.4%solids, but plugging occurred sooner. Most of the separation occurred within the top portion of the filters.