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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Florence, South Carolina » Coastal Plain Soil, Water and Plant Conservation Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #227940
Title: Thermal characterization of swine manure: Bioenergy feedstock potential

Author
item Cantrell, Keri
item Ro, Kyoung
item Hunt, Patrick

Submitted to: ASABE Annual International Meeting
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/17/2008
Publication Date: 6/29/2008
Citation: Cantrell, K.B., Ro, K.S., Hunt, P.G. 2008. Thermal characterization of swine manure: Bioenergy feedstock potential. Proceedings of American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Annual International Meeting, Paper No. 084631, June 29-July 2, 2008, Providence, Rhode Island. 8 pp.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The trend toward larger concentrated animal feeding operations has generated a sustainable surplus of manure. In addition to its traditional use as a fertilizer, manure is a rich organic resource that can be used as a bioenergy feedstock. While thermochemical conversion of animal manure via combustion, pyrolysis, and gasification is becoming a new frontier of animal manure treatment;there is relatively little known about its behavior when subjected to these high-temperature energy-conversion processes. In this study, the oxidation behavior of three different swine manures (flushed, separated solids, and lagoon sludge) were examined by thermal analyses using simultaneous thermogravimetry (TG) and differential thermal analysis (DTA). There seem to be three distinct stages of weight loss and two prominent heat flow peaks. After the manure was degraded microbially in the lagoon, weight loss due to oxidation became less pronounced as well as occurring at lower temperatures. For the flushed and separated solids, TG and DTA profiles were similar with separated solids having slightly greater weight loss attributed to a greater volatile matter composition and less ash. Accordingly, it would be expected to be a slightly better combustible feedstock.