Source: UNIV OF WISCONSIN submitted to
ACCELERATED RENEWABLE ENERGY
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0228524
Grant No.
2012-10006-19423
Cumulative Award Amt.
$7,000,000.00
Proposal No.
2011-06499
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Jul 15, 2012
Project End Date
Jul 14, 2017
Grant Year
2012
Program Code
[BRDI]- Biomass R&D Initiative FY2009 Forward
Project Director
MARKLEY, J. L.
Recipient Organization
UNIV OF WISCONSIN
21 N PARK ST STE 6401
MADISON,WI 53715-1218
Performing Department
Biochemistry
Non Technical Summary
A dairy with 1,700 cows produces 15 tons of manure per day. To handle the manure, the dairy must recycle 2.5 million gallons of water per day. The conventional solutions to these problems are wash the manure into a lagoon, dredge and manure solids and haul them to fields. Manure on the fields may not provide the correct nutrients and is subject to running off and polluting rivers. Our goal is to demonstrate the economic feasibility on the scale of a large dairy farm (1,700) cows of converting the manure produced into valuable commodities including methane gas for heating purposes in the farm, fuel ethanol, and custom fertilizer. Part of the farm acreage (5%) will be devoted to oilseed production, which will be converted to biodiesel to power vehicles on the farm. Our approach utilizes biomass processing technology developed by a small Wisconsin business (Soil Net) and engineering and fabrication expertise of another small Wisconsin business (Braun Electric). We foresee a strong potential for commercialization of this technology and its widespread adoption.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
25%
Applied
50%
Developmental
25%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
1010110100010%
1110399205020%
3083470100050%
6015370301020%
Knowledge Area
601 - Economics of Agricultural Production and Farm Management; 111 - Conservation and Efficient Use of Water; 101 - Appraisal of Soil Resources; 308 - Improved Animal Products (Before Harvest);

Subject Of Investigation
0110 - Soil; 0399 - Watersheds and river basins, general; 5370 - Sewage and waste disposal facilities and systems; 3470 - Other dairy cattle products;

Field Of Science
2050 - Hydrology; 1000 - Biochemistry and biophysics; 3010 - Economics;
Goals / Objectives
We propose a public (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and private (Cottonwood Dairy; Soil Net, LLC; Braun Electric; Resource Engineering Associates, Inc.) collaboration that encompasses both R&D and prototypical farm-based demonstration of the four components of the BRDI FOA: 1. Feedstocks Development: The bioenergy generated will derive primarily from recycled cellulosic components of dairy manure, which have minimal food/fuel issues. 2. Bio-Fuels and Bio-based Products Development: The project will demonstrate/evaluate multiple sub-processes and associated "value added" bio-based co-products -- vegetable oil/meal; oil/biodiesel; cellulosic ethanol; bio-gas/manure digestion; recycled rinse water; low and high P (phosphorus) crop nutrients; and multiple cellulosic manure fiber "fractions" (for mulches, bedding, etc.). 3. Bio-Fuels and Bio-based Products Development Analysis: The project will evaluate (calibrate, implement, validate) economic, environmental, lifecycle, process efficiency, and mass balance analysis and incorporate these into a business decision/management framework. In particular, an analysis of the economics of scale of the various system components will form a major part of the research effort. 4. Use of Oil/Biodiesel for the Production of Grain or Cellulosic Ethanol: The proposed system will be capable of producing oil/biodiesel from vegetable oil seed produced on the farm. Our research will determine the economic benefits of biodiesel vs. purified vegetable oil for direct use in operating farm vehicles and machinery. The expected outcome is the demonstration of cost effective livestock manure separation and processing to produce bio-energy, bio-feedstocks, and value added co-products (mulch/fertilizers) for on-farm and off-farm ("export") markets that can be carried out at a variety of large/medium/small scales. This technology will provide opportunities to exploit readily available, relatively low value potential cellulosic bio-feedstocks-ones that largely avoid food/fuel concerns-to improve economic sustainability: on-farm substitution for purchased energy and feed/fertilizer nutrients or as potential farm revenue diversification; improve environmental sustainability. The approach will reduce GHG/carbon footprint, soil/nutrient losses, and potential manure borne pathogens; and, improve regional economic development. We have shown that a demand exists for many of the manure fiber (mulch/fertilizer) co-products. The flexibility to adopt one (or several) of process/flow components, sequentially, based on the specifics of extant farm infrastructure (manure type/volumes, manure handling/processing, etc.) increases the proposed project's commercialization potential. The extensive process/flow measurement and analysis R&D, at both lab/bench and commercial scale, will provide the analytic/measurement tools to evaluate the economic, environmental, food safety, and regional economic development impacts of this potential commercialization at a variety of resolutions (farm, county, region).
Project Methods
The project will utilize innovative, proprietary (patented), polymer-based technologies that enable cost-effective separation ("fractionation") of dairy manure and associated bioenergy co-products: ethanol, vegetable oil/meals, bio-diesel, and organic soil amendments such as mulches, and customized fertilizer nutrients. Importantly, these polymer-based technologies have been shown to provide cost-effective separation solutions at smaller scale than many extant separation technologies. The project will involve the implementation of technologies at full scale on a dairy farm. The goals are to achieve efficient and effective manure processing (nutrient and organic matter/fiber separation, particle sizing, mixing (polymers, catalysts, enzymes), water reduction, anaerobic digestion, alcohol fermentation/distillation) to produce bio-based co-products and economic/environmental benefits. Small fiber cellulosic feed stocks from two potential sources (10 micrometer-1 millimeter fibers from the biogas digester or greater than 1 mm fibers from the drum separator) will be pretreated with NaOH and urea to break the lignin and hemicelluloses by maceration. After neutralization, the pretreated substrates will be subjected to simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF), using ethanol tolerant/thermotolerant yeast strains, such as Saccharomyces sp. / Kluyveromyces sp., or strains genetically engineered for maximum ethanol production. Ethanol fermentation will be carried out at the optimum enzyme (cellulase) loadings to minimize the cost of production. Followed by fermentation, the undigested/unfermented residues containing cell mass, and lignin will be filtered with polymers added to enhance the filtration rate by forming pellets. Basically, the added polymers help to agglomerate the solids, which in turn increases the filtration rate. The recovered solids (coated with polymers) will be used in the formulation of valuable organic fertilizer to be spread on the agricultural fields. A comprehensive life cycle analysis (LCA) will be performed on this integrated dairy/energy production system. As in any complex system such as this, there are potential tradeoffs in economic performance, environmental quality and energy inputs. The LCA model will quantify the macro-scale environmental impacts of various configurations of the system. The outcome environmental impact indicators will include greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, net energy balances (at the farm and state level), nutrient use efficiency (and its implications on soil and water quality) and ecosystem services such as biodiversity. The LCA effort for this project will develop life cycle inventories (LCI's) on the new components of this system and modify and refine existing LCI's based on the results of the experimental and demonstration work conducted in this project. Optimization techniques will be applied to help understand critical elements of this system and optimal configurations.

Progress 07/15/12 to 07/14/17

Outputs
Target Audience:1. Dairy producers and their key consultants: bankers, financial analysts, dairy crop managers, CCAs (certified crop advisors, manure and nutrient management), and fertilizer and feed providers; 2. Federal, state and local regulators: US department of Agriculture / Natural Resources Conservation Services (USDA/NRCS), Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources) (WI-DNR), Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protections (WI-DATCP), County soil/water Conservation District (SWCD); 3. Local concerned citizens and conservation groups: Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership, County Lakes Association; 4. Professional Nutrient Management Services Changes/Problems:Our Department of Natural Resources (DNR) "Other Practices" protocol to allow irrigation of the low-solids separated manure liquids (tea water) at Maple Leaf Dairy was not accepted, despite our best efforts to work with Maple Leaf Dairy, their Certified Crop Advisor (CCA), DNR, and local environmental regulators. It is hoped that this issue will be revisited in light of our completion of the ARE PALMS software, which enabled an extensive modeling study that demonstrated no significant environmental impacts of using manure-based "tea water" for combined irrigation and fertilization at Maple Leaf Dairy. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Zong Liu received post-doctoral training in the Runge lab. Publications listed previously. Kim Huong Pham received post MS training in laboratory research and data management at Soil Net, LLC. Evgeny Filatov, Master's degree student at UW Madison was partially supported by this project. Dr. J. Camilo Perez - used post-doctoral training at SoilNet, LLC. to optimize the use of polymers for dairy manure suspension clarification in the agricultural industry. Mahmoud Sharara received post-doctoral training in the Runge lab. During the final period he presented: Economic assessment of Coordinated Anaerobic Digestion of Dairy Manure. Wisconsin Anaerobic Digestion Pre-Summit Program, Green Bay, WI (February 21, 2017); Economic Assessment of Coordinated Anaerobic Digestion of Dairy Manure. Waste to Worth 2017. Cary, NC (April 19, 2017); Techno-economic optimization of community-based manure processing. Annual International meeting of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ASABE), Spokane, WA (July 19, 2017); Assessment of Coordinated Anaerobic Digestion of Dairy Manure. Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center (LPELC) Webinar Series (August 14, 2017). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?In addition to the 25 published articles andpresentationslisted previously,Soil Net LLC provided technology demonstrations during the commissioning of the BioAg fertilizer plant at Fair Oaks Farms(Fair Oaks IN, March 2017), and at the commissioningof the expanded manure solids separations capabilities at Wolf Creek Dairy (Eaton CO, July 2017). Soil Net LLC participated in and/or was a sponsor of these conferences: World Ag Expo (106,000 attendees), International Agri-Center, Tulare, CA, February 14-16, 2017; exhibit booth referenced ARE grant for Nutrient Recovery American Chemical Society National Meeting, San Francisco CA, March 31- April 1, 2017 Waste to Worth, Cary NC, oral presentation April 2017 What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Agricultural Nutrient Management Optimized for Dairy Systems (ANMODS).ANMODS is software suite designed to help farms realize economic and environmental benefits from manure management, including manure handling, transport and application. Additional environmental gains may be possible through processing of surplus manure nutrients into easily exportable forms. This work concluded that: 1) field-level farm optimization enables exploration of novel management decisions that can aid in sustainability; 2) manure separation can improve on-farm nutrient management sustainability; 3) the benefits of separation systems are more clearly realized for farms with large herds. The ANMODS tool is available under an open-access framework https://anmods.discovery.wisc.edu/). Precision Agricultural-Landscape Modeling System (PALMS). PALMS enables farm field management decision making. The PALMS graphical user interface (GUI) handles a variety of data inputs including daily estimates of soil moisture and temperature, water runoff and ponding, and crop status at specific locations within a field. The ARE PALMS project focused on simulating the environmental impact of business-as-usual practices (whole manure application) as opposed to the environmental impact of irrigation of low-solids separated manure liquids (either by avoiding grassy waterways or by irrigating through waterways). The study showed no significant environmental impacts from irrigation with manure liquids even through waterways. These studies were enabled by major additions to the software. PALMS can be licensed for research or commercial use through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. Manure processing for liquid/solid/nutrient management Manure liquid-solid separation. We collected farm data and performed mass and energy balances to benchmark the performance of various liquid-solid separation equipment and polymer systems at two different dairies. Using the operational cost and nutrient separation efficiencies, we developed mathematical models that describes their performance. These models were used as candidate technologies in developing ANMODS. Manure palletization/granulation. Dairy manure separation and densification were investigated in pilot-scale production tests to compare granulation and pelletization as means of facilitating manure nutrient export and tunable nutrient levels. Pelletization was more robust in its applications (better able to densify a wider range of manure types), whereas granulation could only be performed on separated manures with minimal fiber content without the addition of binder. Manure pellet utilization - yeast growth media. We studied alternate uses for manure pellets beyond organic fertilizer. We investigated these pellets as yeast growth media. Results demonstrated that yeast growth was more than 5-times higher on manure media (with additional carbon source) than on sugar-urea control media (with additional carbon source) for the same nitrogen content level (by yeast cell counts). Although yeast grown on manure media was lower than on yeast extract peptone dextrose (YPD), the cost was considerably lower. Manure pellet utilization - hydroponic growth media. Sustainable utilization of manure granules in soilless crop growth systems was also investigated. The slow-release nature of nutrients in manure can support soilless crop growth systems for longer time periods and with lower labor and supplies costs than conventional hydroponic media. The results revealed that dry manure pellets are feasible as a nutrient substrate for tomato growth. Tomatoes took a shorter time to ripen and yielded higher fruit weight percentage over whole plant weight when grown in manure media than when grown in chemical fertilizer control. Bacteria reduction in separated manures Polymer treatment for bacteria reduction in manure. This study demonstrated that low charge density polyacrylamide (PAM) is effective for manure coagulation and flocculation but has a negligible effect on pathogen reduction in both nutrient rich and deficient conditions. By contrast, high charge density polydicyandiamide (PDCD) was not effective at coagulating dairy manure at its typical solids content, but had a positive impact on pathogen reduction and, moreover could further reduce the manure solids content after initial PAM separation. Biological treatment for bacteria reduction in manure. Low-solids manure samples were treated with micro-algae Cladophora to investigate their potential for reducing pathogen levels by removing essential nutrients. This is critical, because manure "tea-water" is desirable for use for irrigation but could pose health risks if bacteria levels are high and aerosolized. Results showed that micro-algae in manure samples diluted 1:50 reduced bacteria by a factor of 10,000 and phosphorus by a factor of 3 compared to no algae control. Manure as a feedstock for energy Manure to ethanol. Separated manure fibers were investigated as a feedstock for cellulosic ethanol production. As these low-cost fibers are known to be highly recalcitrant to enzymatic digestion, we investigated a pretreatment using combined NaOH and aqueous ammonia as a supplementary reagent to remove lignin and other substrate features to enhance the enzyme accessibility for fiber digestion. The completed studies did show improved digestion of fibers with this treatment; however, the cost was too high for economic production of ethanol. Pretreatment to improve anaerobic biomethane production. We investigated a wide range of chemical pretreatments on dairy manures to improve methane production during anaerobic digestion. We conclude that chemical pretreatment can improve the anaerobic biomethane production through partial removal of lignin which covers carbohydrates in the cell wall. However, high temperatures were required in the pretreatment, which lowers the feasibility of the process. Lower temperature chemical pretreatments requiring significant chemical loadings were effective, but are difficult to manage in a farm setting. Isomerization of glucose to fructose. Isomerization of glucose to fructose is a key intermediate step in the biochemical conversion of dairy manure to liquid fuels and chemicals. Accordingly, we investigated a catalytic method of converting glucose to fructose. We found that basic amino acids could be used as non-toxic catalysts for glucose isomerization. We also found that the addition of salt greatly promotes isomerization catalyzed by organic bases. Systems investigating the production of fine chemicals from cellulosic streams should consider the use of these catalysts to improve yield and economic feasibility. Value-added co-products (fertilizers) for on-farm and off-farm (export) markets. ARE Subaward Soil Net LLC. greatly improved polymer based manure separation technologies during the course of this grant, first at lab-scale (Soil Net labs, Bellville, WI), and then farm-scale (Maple Leaf Dairy, Cleveland, WI) (MLD). Manure samples from fifteen sampling points at MLD manure treatment plant were repeatedly taken over the years of the ARE grant and analyzed for solids, nutrient and pathogen indicator levels. These data were used to evaluate and continuously improve the separation efficiency of the various separation units at MLD. This technology was further scaled up and deployed at Fair Oaks Farms (FOF) (Fair Oaks, Indiana). The first-stage separation of manure at FOF results in ~ 300 tons per day of manure cake at 25% moisture content. A portion of this total output (from 17,000 of 36,000 cows) is being utilized as feedstock at a new organo-mineral fertilizer plant constructed in 2017 on site at FOF by Midwest BioAg. The fertilizers produced / marketed are of high commercial value.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Adam Christensen, Hongbo Dong, Jagdish Ramakrishnan, Mahmoud Sharara, Michael C. Ferris. Valuation of technology options for nutrient management under different environmental policy regimes (submitted to Waste Management)
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Michael C. Ferris. Invited speaker. Connections: Data, Decisions, Optimization, Cows and Fish. Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: Dec 13, 2016. Winter School on Optimization and Operations Research, Zinal, Switzerland: Jan 20, 2017.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Michael C. Ferris. Wisconsin Environmental Modeling and Policy: Cows, Fish and Optimization. Presentation to Badger Legislative Caucus, Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, Madison, WI: Dec 8, 2016.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Liu, Zong, Mahmoud Sharara, Sundaram Gunasekaran, and Troy M. Runge. "Effects of Large-Scale Manure Treatment Processes on Pathogen Reduction, Protein Distributions, and Nutrient Concentrations." Transactions of the ASABE 59 no. 2 (2016): 695-702.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Liu, Zong, Zachary S. Carroll, Sharon C. Long, Sundaram Gunasekaran, and Troy Runge. "Use of cationic polymers to reduce pathogen levels during dairy manure separation." Journal of Environmental Management 166 (2016): 260-266.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Yang, Qiang, Hui Wang, Rebecca Larson, and Troy Michael Runge. "Comparative Study of Chemical Pretreatments of Dairy Manure for Enhanced Biomethane Production." BioResources 12, no. 4 (2017): 7363-7375.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Liu, Zong, Zach Carroll, Sharon Long, and Troy Runge. Centrifuge Separation Effect on Bacterial Indicator Reduction in Dairy Manure. Journal of Environmental Management, 191 (2017): 268274.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Yang, Qiang, Matthew Sherbahn, and Troy Runge. "Basic Amino Acids as Green Catalysts for Isomerization of Glucose to Fructose in Water." ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 4 no. 6 (2016): 35263534.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Yang, Qiang, and Troy Runge. "Polyethylenimines as Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Catalysts for Glucose Isomerization." ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 4, no. 12 (2016): 69516961
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Yang, Qiang, Wu Lan, and Troy Runge. "Salt-Promoted Glucose Aqueous Isomerization Catalyzed by Heterogeneous Organic Base." ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 4, no. 9 (2016): 4850-4858.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Elumalai, Sasikumar, Bhumica Agarwal, Troy M. Runge, and Rajender S. Sangwan. "Integrated Two-stage Chemically Processing of Rice Straw Cellulose to Butyl Levulinate." Carbohydrate Polymers 150 (2016): 286-298.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Aicardo Roa-Espinosa, Manure Separation into Biocomponents and Production of Organo-mineral Fertilizers, Indian Institute of Technology Karagpur, seminar August 25, 2017
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Aicardo Roa-Espinosa, Manure Separation, Nutrients in Biomass, In-field measurements by XRF, Bio-Fertilizers, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Chemical Engineering, seminars October 22-23, 2016
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Aicardo Roa-Espinosa, Manure Solids Separation, Biofertilizer Production, Drinking Water Effluent, Waste to Worth, Cary NC, oral presentation April 2017; http://articles.extension.org/pages/74365/epas-nutrient-recycling- challenge; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=howWrxNgfuI
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Aicardo Roa-Espinosa, Disruptive Technology Changing On-Farm Sustainability, Sustainable Agriculture Summit, Atlanta GA, oral presentation Nov 14-17, 2016
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Julia Sedlmair, Aicardo Roa-Espinosa, Trang T. Vu, Nutrients in Biomass  Benefits of Using WD-XRF, Denver X-ray Conference, oral presentation August 4, 2016
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Converting Cow Poop into Clean Fuel  Sue McCloskey, co-founder Fair Oaks Farms and Fairlife, a diary company, Good Housekeeping Magazine, September 2017 issue, page 68
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Prairies Edge Dairy (Fair Oaks, IN) on path toward producing manure-based commercial fertilizer, Progressive Dairy November 23, 2016 issue; www.progressivedairy.com/topics/manure/prairie-s-edge-dairy-on-path-toward-producing-manure-based-commercial-fertilizer
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Big Agriculture Gets Its Sh*t Together, Fortune Magazine February 1, 2016 issue: http:/fortune.com/fair-oaks-dairy-manure-fuel-farming
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2017 Citation: Sharara, Mahmoud, Troy Runge, Rebecca Larson, and John Primm; Techno-economic optimization of community-based manure processing (Agricultural Systems) Submitted July 2017
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Mahmoud A. Sharara, Troy M. Runge, and Rebecca Larson. Assessment of Coordinated Anaerobic Digestion of Dairy Manure. Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center (LPELC) Webinar Series (August 14, 2017).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Mahmoud A. Sharara, Troy M. Runge, Rebecca Larson, and John Primm. Techno-economic optimization of community-based manure processing. Annual International meeting of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ASABE), Spokane, WA (July 19, 2017).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Mahmoud A. Sharara, Troy M. Runge, Rebecca Larson. Economic Assessment of Coordinated Anaerobic Digestion of Dairy Manure. Assessment of coordinated anaerobic digestion of dairy manure. Waste to Worth 2017. Cary, NC (April 19, 2017).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Troy Runge. Manure Processing Technologies. Wisconsin Manure Summit Program, Green Bay, WI (February 22, 2017).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Mahmoud A. Sharara. Economic Assessment of Coordinated Anaerobic Digestion of Dairy Manure. Wisconsin Anaerobic Digestion Pre-Summit Program, Green Bay, WI (February 21, 2017).


Progress 07/15/15 to 07/14/16

Outputs
Target Audience:1. Dairy producers and their key consultants: bankers, financial analysts, dairy crop managers, CCAs (certified crop advisors, manure and nutrient management), and fertilizer and feed providers 2. Federal, state and local regulators: US department of Agriculture / Natural Resources Conservation Services (USDA/NRCS), Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources) (WI-DNR), Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protections (WI-DATCP), County soil/water Conservation District (SWCD) 3. Local concerned citizens and conservation groups: Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership, County Lakes Association 4. Professional Nutrient Management Services Changes/Problems:Our Department of Natural Resources (DNR) "Other Practices" protocol has not yet been accepted to allow irrigation of the tea water fraction at Maple Leaf Dairy. We have addressed the DNR comments in a draft of the proposal, and have worked with Maple Leaf Dairy, their Certified Crop Advisor (CCA), DNR, and local environmental regulators to adopt the proposed "Other Practices" protocol. We now view it as unlikely that the protocol will be approved at Maple Leaf Dairy. We plan to modify the proposal to be applicable to the Larson Acres site. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Post-Doc Qaing Yang attended and presented at the following conference: Wisconsin Farm Technology Days, August 25-27, 2015 Post-Doc Zong Liu attended and presented at the following conference: Water Microbiology Conference, May 17-19, 2016 Kim Huong Pham received post MS training in laboratory research and data management at SoilNet, LLC. Evgeny Filatov is a Master's degree student at UW Madison partially supported by this project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?In addition to the 26 published articles and conference presentations listed previously, the following 10 technology demonstrations were conducted: Feeco Green Bay WI, processing of digested manure via multidisc press at Maple Leaf Dairy and transport of solids to Feeco for granule production; September 19-23, 2015 Soil Net LLC, Presentation and on-site demonstration in Eau Claire WI and Albertville MN to Revier Farms, Kewaunee County, Midwest Bio Ag, Feeco, on manure separation, July 28, 2015 Soil Net LLC, demonstration at Soil Net for Ponderosa Dairy Farms, August 11, 2015 Soil Net LLC, demonstration at Soil Net to Midwest Bio Ag and Walton Foundation, November 3, 2015 Soil Net LLC, demonstration at Cottonwood Dairy to Fair Oaks Farms, Walton Foundation, McDonald's Corporation, November 5, 2015 Soil Net LLC, demonstration at Soil Net to Proteus, January 8, 2016 Soil Net LLC, demonstration at Soil Net to Kevin Connors, head of Dane County Lakes and Watershed Commission, on XRF for soil analysis, March 2016 Soil Net LLC, demonstration at Soil Net to Clint Fondrich, Wisconsin Energy Board, on conversion of fibers to sugars, April 5, 2016 Soil Net LLC, on site presentation to Flint Hills Innovation and Koch Brothers in Iowa, on treating manure and corn fibers to produce Bioethanol and Butanol. April 29, 2016 Soil Net LLC, demonstration at Soil Net to Flint Hills Innovation on manure and fiber separation and conversion of fibers to sugar, May 2016 What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Our future research plans include: Obtaining a DNR permit that allows a study of irrigation of low-solids manure tea water through grassy waterways, specifically characterizing the difference in runoff/P-loss/soil-erosion on SAW-1 under the scenarios of no-irrigation, irrigation skipping waterways, irrigation through waterways. Work will include making any additional changes to PALMS to reflect management practices and output requirements, and the running of PALMS for the three scenarios on SAW-1 over 6+ years. Complete position paper (Working title: "A mixed-integer framework for operational decision-making in sustainable nutrient management") for Operations Research (OR) Journal. Improve the interface between ANMODS and SNAP+ (Soil Nutrient Application Planner) or Rusle2 (Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation, Version 2). A critical component of ANMODS is its interaction with detailed soil and nutrient management software. Currently, this interface is difficult to use due to limited access to data fields and abnormal termination of the software when called programmatically. We intend to improve this. Improve output data views in ANMODS. The output of results is currently limited to certain graphs available within the programming framework. The analysis we carried out has more output formats and we intend to incorporate some of these into ANMODS, along with other domain driven outputs. Submit a position paper to AgEcon Journal with greater problem domain specification. The OR paper lays out a methodology for strategic design and sustainable use of a complete farm system. Several data fields have limited inputs, which restrict simulations. In collaboration with domain experts, we intend to write a follow up manuscript that removes these limitations and also considers more operational use of the model. Simulation of phosphorus losses from Maple Leaf Dairy fields irrigated with manure tea water under no-irrigation-through-waterway management and irrigation-through-waterway management: Year 5's work will use results from PALMS simulations to support of the DNR permit application for allowing irrigation of low-solids manure tea water through grassy waterways, specifically characterizing the difference in runoff/P-loss/soil-erosion on SAW-1 under the scenarios of no-irrigation, irrigation skipping waterways, irrigation through waterways. Work will include making any additional simulations to explore effects of possible management changes. Results will be delivered in a report and presented in person to Maple Leaf. After feedback from Maple Leaf, additional simulations may be run in order to answer any questions brought up during the discussion of results at Maple Leaf. Results to be added to report. Manure Processing Modeling: We will complete scenario development and assessment of life cycle of on-farm manure managements. Additionally, we will update the granulation techno-economic model with a large cost estimate dataset to improve projections. Manure pelletization using solids from Larson Acres: Manure separated solids at Larson Acres will be dried and pelletized at Larson Acres and FEECO International. Pilot scale production will be conducted. Manure pellets will be evaluated with parameters including moisture content, pathogen indicator level, and nutrient concentrations. These pellet samples will be also evaluated for multiple utilization purposes. Micro-algae growth for nutrient and bacteria reduction in manure: More replicates for micro-algae cladophora growth in manure liquid will be conducted, including higher dilutions of the manure samples. Data will be collected for manuscript preparation. Microbial communities sequencing analysis: Manure samples with different treatment are currently under analysis by 16S rRNA sequencing; the results will be analyzed to understand the effects of manure treatment processes on microbial communities and levels of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Chemical pretreatment for biogas production: We will continue to optimize our chemical pretreatments to improve anaerobic biomethane production of undigested dairy manure. Continuation of on-farm sampling protocols and lab testing to study system efficiencies as a whole on manure separation. Development and installation of a farm-scale struvite removal system.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? ANMODS (Agricultural Nutrient Management Optimized for Dairy Systems): We have continued to develop an authentic, large-scale, mixed integer programming model for operational decision-making in sustainable nutrient management. The model includes necessary details that allow the entire nutrient cycle to be modeled on a large concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO). It is an example of a general model of sustainability that links multiple farm systems (cows, crops, and nutrient management) and treats inherent feedback loops as endogenous. The model has been interfaced to a software system called ANMODS, which is intended as a decision support tool for farm system managers and consultants. While enabling analyses of existing systems in a sustainable setting, the model also facilitates policy analyses that incorporate new restrictions on nitrogen and potassium, and also evaluates the costs of imposing additional sustainability constraints related to dry matter and organic nitrogen. We are developing a paper for publication based on realistic data from two different locations in Wisconsin, and are investigating the impacts of different separation technologies with regard to the aforementioned environmental policies. Manure processing evaluations: Manure samples from Larson Acres Dairy manure processing systems were taken every two hours over a 24-hour period to understand variability and to enable optimization of the system. The removal efficiencies of total suspended solids and total solids of the centrifuge at Larson Acres Dairy were 67.5% and 30.3%, respectively. From these data we have worked with the producer to investigate a new system incorporating a polymer-assisted screen system as a lower cost solution. We used mass balance analyses to benchmark the performance of various liquid-solid separation strategies tried at Maple Leaf Dairy (operational cost, nutrient separation efficiencies) and to develop mathematical models that describe their performance. These models were used as candidate technologies in the farm optimization model, ANMODS, which assists producers design manure processing and plan its utilization toward economic operation. These models are also used in the inventory phase for life cycle assessment. We are continuing the development of scenarios that represent different dairy production systems in terms of manure management priorities, i.e., energy production, nutrients export, air quality, and environmental impacts of on-farm technologies. Manure pellet utilization: We have studied alternative uses for manure pellets beyond organic fertilizer. We conducted studies of manure pellets as growth media for yeast. The results demonstrated that yeast growth (measured by cell counts) in manure media (with an additional carbon source) was more than 5 times higher than in a sugar only control and urea media (with an additional carbon source) with the same nitrogen content level but only about 72% compared to the standard hydroponic nutrient media YPD (although at a considerably lower cost). Manure pellets were also investigated as growth media for micro-algae (spirulina) without any additional carbon source. Multiple concentrations, mixing conditions, manure feeding intervals, and manure feed types were tested. The results showed that feeding manure tea water every day yielded higher cell numbers than feeding every other day. At a higher manure concentration, feeding every other day was the better option. The reactor fed every day with tea water at a concentration of 1.5 g manure pellet/liter resulted in highest cell counts (129,167 cells/ml), which was higher than that obtained with a commercial algae nutrient (95,833 cells/ml). The use of manure granules in soilless crop growth systems was also investigated. Because nutrients are released slowly from manure pellets, their use results in lower labor and supply costs than conventional systems, which require frequent addition of fertilizer. Dry manure pellets proved to be a successful nutrient for tomato growth. When compared to controls grown with a chemical fertilizer, tomatoes grown in manure media took a shorter time to ripen and yielded a higher percentage of fruit weight to whole plant weight. Micro-algae growth for nutrient and bacteria reduction in manure: Two types of manure were taken from Larson Acres and treated with micro-algae (cladophora) to investigate if this treatment could reduce pathogen levels by removal of essential nutrients. The results showed that micro-algae treatment of 1:50 dilution manure samples reduced levels of bacteria by a factor of 10,000 and reduced phosphorus by a factor of 3 compared to controls with no algae. This is a promising technology to enable low-cost water treatment on large farms. Chemical pretreatment to improve anaerobic biomethane production: We found that a chemical pretreatment improved anaerobic biomethane production from biomass through the partial removal of lignin. However, the high temperatures required by this pretreatment lowers its commercial feasibility; thus we are currently investigating chemical and biological pretreatments that require lower temperature. Isomerization of glucose to fructose: Isomerization of glucose to fructose is a key intermediate step in the biochemical conversion of dairy manure to liquid fuels and chemicals through the sugar platform. We found that basic amino acids could be used as non-toxic catalysts for glucose isomerization. We also found that the addition of salt greatly promotes the isomerization performances of organic base catalysts. Simulation of phosphorus losses from Maple Leaf Dairy fields irrigated with manure tea water under no-irrigation-through-waterway management and irrigation-through-waterway management: Changes were made to the Precision Agricultural Landscape Modeling System (PALMS) to allow simulation and comparison of the types of management we wish to test at Maple Leaf. We completed an auto harvest option, added an option for irrigation water to contain solids and NPK nutrients, added tracking of P content of soil in plow layer, added partial tracking of P in deep soil, added variables to accumulate soil P removal through plant uptake and harvest, added P leaching, fixed bugs in dissolved P losses in "deep" runoff, and added an option to use manure application maps. We ran 6 years of simulations on a demonstration field (#196) at Maple Leaf Dairy (SAW-1) under four different scenarios: (1) business as usual (reported crops and manure, no irrigation), (2) auto irrigation (reported crops and manure, automated irrigation of manure "tea-water" in center pivot area outside of waterways), (3) 4 prescribed irrigation events (reported crops, no manure, irrigation of manure "tea-water" in center pivot area outside of waterways), (4) 4 prescribed irrigation events plus manure (reported crops, manure outside of pivot area, irrigation of manure "tea-water" in center pivot area outside of waterways). We ran two additional scenarios on SAW-1 for the year with the most runoff (2010): (1) 4 prescribed irrigation events through waterways (reported crops, manure outside of pivot area, irrigation of manure "tea-water" in center pivot area including through waterways), (2) 4 prescribed irrigation events using no-nutrient water (reported crops and manure, irrigation of no-water in center pivot area including through waterways). We created an animation of a season-long PALMS simulation on a Maple Leaf field showing runoff, erosion, and P losses. We started a report comparing the results of different simulations and how they suggest which management practices will be best environmentally, agronomically, practically, etc.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Michael Ferris- invited speaker, February, 2015.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Optimization, Sparsity and Adaptive Data Analysis, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Michael Ferris - plenary speaker, March, 2015.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences, Northwestern University, Chicago, Michael Ferris- invited speaker, May 25, 2015.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: ACNW Optimization Workshop, Northwestern University, Chicago, Michael Ferris - invited speaker, June, 2015.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: 17th British-French-German Conference on Optimization, Imperial College, London, Michael Ferris - plenary speaker, June, 2015.
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Optimization Research Consortium, Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, Madison: Michael Ferris - invited speaker, November 20, 2015.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: NATCOR meeting, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, Michael Ferris plenary speaker, June 2016
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Optimization Program Opening Workshop, SAMSI, North Carolina, Michael Ferris -invited speaker, September 2016
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Summer School on Convex Optimization, University of Edinburgh, lecturer, June, 2016.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Fast Monitoring Processed Manure Using WD-XRF Spectroscopy for Nutrients and Metals, Alexander Seyfarth and Aicardo Roa-Espinosa, abstract 1130-22, Pittcon, Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry (16,000 attendees), March 8, 2016
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Onsite Monitoring of Manure Using XRF for Nutrients and Metals, Alexander Seyfarth and Aicardo Roa-Espinosa, abstract 1130-23, Pittcon, Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry (16,000 attendees), March 8, 2016
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Manure Solids Separation Nutrient Isolation and Biofertilizer Application, technical poster, Aicardo Roa-Espinosa, Kerry Doyle, Richard Ludke, Nutrient Recycling Challenge White House DC Summit, March 30-31, 2016
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: T. M. Neeson, M. C. Ferris, M. W. Diebel, P. J. Doran, J. R. OHanley, and P. B. McIntyre, Enhancing ecosystem restoration efficiency through spatial and temporal coordination., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 112, no. 19, pp. 6236 -6241, 2015.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Yang, Qiang, Wu Lan, and Troy Runge. "Salt-promoted Glucose Aqueous Isomerization Catalyzed by Heterogeneous Organic Base." ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (2016).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Yang, Qiang, Matthew Sherbahn, and Troy Runge. "Basic Amino Acids as Green Catalysts for Isomerization of Glucose to Fructose in Water." ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 4 no. 6 (2016): 35263534.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: R. S. Russ, S. R. Wangen, D. L. Nye, R. B. Shapiro, W. Strinz, and M. C. Ferris, Fields of Fuel: Using a video game to support evidence based reasoning about sustainability, The Science Teacher, vol. 82, pp. 4954, Mar. 2015. "
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: A. T. Moody, T. M. Neeson, S. Wangen, J. Dischler, M. W. Diebel, M. Herbert, M. Khoury, E. Yacobson, P. J. Doran, M. C. Ferris, J. R. OHanley, and P. B. McIntyre, Pet project or best project? Online decision support tools for prioritizing barrier removals in the Great Lakes and beyond, Fisheries, 2015.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: F. Beaudry, M. C. Ferris, A. M. Pidgeon, and V. C. Radeloff, Identifying areas of optimal multispecies conservation value by accounting for incompatibilities between species, Ecological Modelling, vol. 332, pp. 7482, July 2016.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: A. Tayyebi, T. D. Meehan, J. Dischler, G. Radloff, M. Ferris, and C. Gratton, SmartScape: A web-based decision support system for assessing the tradeoffs among multiple ecosystem services under cropchange scenarios, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 121, pp. 108121, 2016.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: J. V. Outrata, M. C. Ferris, M. Cervinka, and M. Outrata, On cournotnash-walras equilibria and their computation, Set Valued Analysis, pp. 116, June 2016.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: A. Milt, P. Doran, M. Ferris, A. Moody, T. Neeson, and P. McIntyre, Local-scale benefits of restoration planning beyond jurisdictional boundaries, Conservation Letters, p. submitted, 2016.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Mahmoud A. Sharara, Qiang Yang, Thomas L. Cox, & Troy Runge. Techno-economic assessment of dairy manure granulation. Annual International meeting of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ASABE), Orlando, FL  July 2016.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Qiang Yang and Troy Runge. Polyethylenimine as homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts for isomerization of glucose, 251st ACS National Meeting, 2016.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Qiang Yang and Troy Runge, Effect of Pretreatment on Bioethanol and Biomethane Production from Dairy Manure Wisconsin Farm Technology Days, August 25-27, 2015
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Tom Cox, Jim Leverich, Hongbo Dong, Jagdish Ramakrishnan, Michael Ferris Economic and Environmental Optimization with Manure Separation Wisconsin Farm Technology Days, August 25-27, 2015
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Mahmoud Sharara and Troy Runge Economics of Manure Granulation Wisconsin Farm Technology Days, August 25-27, 2015


Progress 07/15/14 to 07/14/15

Outputs
Target Audience:1. Dairy producers and their key consultants: bankers and financial analysts, dairy and crop managers, CCAs (certified crop advisors, manure and nutrient management), fertilizer and feed providers, etc. 2. Federal, state, local regulators: USDA/NRCS, WI-DNR, WI-DATCP, County SWCD (soil/water conservation district). 3. Local concerned citizens and environmental groups: Centerville Town Board, Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership and the County Lakes Association. 4. Professional Nutrient Applicators and Nutrient Management Services. Changes/Problems:R.C. Ludke (Co-Director) is no longer employed by Braun Electric and is now working independently as proprietor of LEAP Tech, Inc. However, his role on the project remains unchanged as consultant and installation manager for research equipment at Maple Leaf Dairy. Mr. Ludke will be supported through the on-going subaward to Soil Net. A second CAFO, Larson Acres, has joined the project. This CAFO milks over 1400 cows and farms approximately 3000 acres. Their role in the project will be to further the research on manure separation and to provide a test site for optimal use of the separated fractions as determined by the ARE optimization software currently in development. Larson Acres may also contribute to the project's in-kind contribution match. Should this occur, an application wil be forthcoming within the next two months after the scope of work to be performed on the farm is formalized. http://larsonacres.com/WelcomePage.htm Our DNR "Other Practices" protocol has not yet been accepted to allow irrigation of the tea water fraction at Maple Leaf Dairy. We have addressed the DNR comments in a draft to the proposal, and are working with Maple Leaf Dairy, their CCA, DNR, and local environmental regulators to adopt the proposed "Other Practices" protocol in 2015. Final approval of protocol is pending, and we hope to be irrigating in year 4 at MLD. In addition, we plan to modify the proposal to be applicable to the Larson Acres site. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Post-doc Zong Liu attended and presented at 2015 ASABE conference in New Orleans, LA (July 28th, 2015) and the Waste to Worth conference in Seattle WA (April 1, 2015) How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?In addition to the 38 journal articles, presentations, posters, meetings and videos listed elsewhere in this report, we continue to interact with WI DNR, Manitowoc County SWCS members, Maple Leaf Dairy, our Private Sector collaborators (SoilNet, Braun Electric, FEECO Intl, Braun Electric), other UW researchers, and interested others (Ag/Farm trade press, etc.). Further, we submitted a UW Igniter commercialization proposal based on our research. This competed successfully up to the final round of funding. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In order to accomplish our goals future research plans include: Update lifecycle analysis model with results from lab-scale and pilot-scale results of bio-fuels and bio-products development. Create different scenarios to highlight relative performance of different bio-fuels and bio-products. Update the granulation techno-economic model with a large cost estimate dataset to improve projections. Expand the granulation techno-economic model to evaluate the economics of central processing granulation facility that is supplied by transported manure from surrounding dairy, or non-dairy livestock operations. Continue biological and chemical pretreatment to improve anaerobic biomethane production of undigested dairy manure Screen low toxicity base catalysts for the aqueous phase isomerization of glucose to fructose. Research dairy manure pellets as nutrient substrate in hydroponic systems. Conduct manure settling experiments with coagulant/flocculent added to investigate lower cost manure separation systems Investigate resistance of dairy manure bacteria to commonly used antibiotics for dairy cows including florfenicol, cephalosporin, penicillin, and tetracycline. General DNR permit application for allowing irrigation of low-solids manure tea water through grassy waterways, specifically characterizing the difference in runoff/P-loss/soil-erosion on SAW-1 under the scenarios of no-irrigation, irrigation skipping waterways, irrigation through waterways. Work will include making any additional changes to PALMS to reflect management practices and output requirements, and the running of PALMS for the three scenarios on SAW-1 over 6+ years. We will proceed to integrate our optimal, farm field specific, Long Run "Sustainable" manure NMP and rotation/tillage results into the sequentially linked short run models: Optimal seasonal manure storage/application; Optimal variable rate manure nutrient management, etc. Simulate additional manure application practices (surface apply, incorporate, inject, or fertigate) in SNAP+ to obtain environmental performance data and associated response function analytics to augment our current databases. Incorporate these alternative separation technologies/systems into our long run/sustainable rotational and annual balancing optimization models. Incorporate these alternative separation technologies/systems into our long run/sustainable rotational and annual balancing optimization models. We will continue to augment our CAPEX/OPEX analyses of alternative separation technologies and manure management systems (scrape versus flush, bedding on manure solids versus sand, feedlot versus integrated crop/livestock) on extant farms. In conjunction with the Runge Lab and SoilNet, we also need to sample, analyze, and validate the process flow/balance (Input/Output) associated with these technologies: quantities and composition, potential losses, energy/labor usage, etc. Complete our rotation based validations of the optimal farm/field specific NMPs and rotations by running these results back through SNAP+. After rejection of our revised "Other Practices" protocol for fertigating separated manure liquids through grass waterways, we performed additional analysis using SNAP+ to confirm that our proposed protocol would generated environmental performance similar to or better than status quo practices, in consultation with Laura Ward Good (UW statewide SNAP+ coordinator) and John Norman, UW emeritus Soil Science professor (author of our proposed protocol)l. Our analysis indicates that despite SNAP+ limitations in correctly modelling separated manure liquids (<2% small fiber solids), our proposed protocol delivers identical environmental performance within measurable differences from SNAP+ (verified by Laura Ward Good). We plan to share our analysis with DNR management. Development and installation of a farm-scale struvite removal system. Continuation of on-farm sampling protocols and lab testing to study manure separation system efficiencies.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Biogas: We have improved manure processing by replacing the clarifier, which proved to be insufficient for the needs at Maple Leaf Dairy (MLD), by a custom-designed 400 ft2 Diffused Air Floatation (DAF) system. Although the initial implementation showed improvement, sand and other hard solids in the DAF feedstock proved mechanically challenging to the pumps, and hard solids accumulated in the base of the machine. Design improvements have been made and proofed. Automation of the improved system will be implemented in year four. Using the pre-digester DAF to separate raw manure: The addition of fibers to raw (pre-digester) manure has been implemented at MLD since May 2nd 2015. The pre-digester DAF is separating raw manure. When the flush towers are full, the DAF effluent is sent to the solids lagoons, and by doing so reduces the solids content of the cleaner water by an additional 1% to 1.5%. When the solids content of the recycled water in the DAF increases above the optimal level, a pump brings in cleaner water to ensure continued successful operation of the DAF separator. Manure separation analysis: Manure samples from 15 sampling points at the MLD manure treatment plant were taken and analyzed for solids, nutrient and pathogen indicator levels. These data were then used to evaluate the separation efficiency of the various separation units on farm. These data will serve to benchmark these separation technologies for future implementation. Additionally, we carried out another round of sample collection at Maple Leaf Dairy, from various points in the manure management system, to re-establish mass/component balances after the farm modified the manure separation system by adding a new DAF system. Manure granulation experiments: Two manure granulation process experiments were conducted at FEECO to investigate the production of a granulated separated manure product. We used the data collected from granulated trials at FEECO to build a modeling/simulation tool. This tool evaluates the economics of granulation for digested manure solids as affected by herd size, on-farm processing, in addition to cost drivers, such as equipment, labor, and fuel costs. The model estimates the minimum sale price of granulated manure solids. We also looked at the manure properties which demonstrated a lower odor and wet durability. The drying treatment significantly lowered pathogen levels in the dry manure pellets. Chemical pretreatment to improve fermentation of manure: An effective pretreatment is necessary for dairy manure to remove recalcitrance to enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose caused by hemicellulose and lignin. A sulfite pretreatment was tested on undigested dairy manure, looking at different experimental reactions (temperature, time and acid loading) in order to optimize the sulfite pretreatment. The results show that the pretreatment can significantly improve the enzymatic digestibility (from 2.5% to 53.5%) of undigested dairy manure for bioethanol production. The chemically-pretreated dairy manure was also tested for biomethane production through anaerobic digestion. The chemical pretreatment can enhance the biomethane production by 15%-46%. Isomerization of glucose to fructose: We demonstrated facile and general strategies to fabricate heterogeneous or magnetic base catalysts based on organic bases for the isomerization of glucose to fructose in water. The synthesized catalysts can convert glucose to fructose with a 31% yield and a 61% selectivity. Manure protein analysis: A UV-vis assay adopted from the Bradford method was developed for determining soluble protein in manure slurries. The method is effective and relatively easy to perform. A relationship was established for estimating total protein in manure from a combination of soluble protein and solids content. Cellulase Bio-prospecting: We have bio-prospected for Actinobacteria gut symbionts of the wood eating termite Reticulitermes flavipes in order find potential sources for large scale production of cellulases that could be used in the production of bioethanol from anaerobically digested manure. Ten of the isolates showed strong cellulolytic activity. Preliminary data suggest that pretreatment of cow manure with spores of the Actinobacteria will liberate 15% more methane for the production of biogas. Optimizing the raw manure (pre-digester) solid separation to improve the efficacy of the flush system: Experiments were conducted to compare different methods of mechanical separation of manure fractions. Specifically, the separation achieved by the rotating screen currently employed at MLD was compared to those offered by other methods on the market including the slope screen and elliptical advancement table screen. The efficiency of the rotating screen is 25%. The table screen is 12 to 15% more efficient than the rotating screen. The slope screen is >50% more efficient than the rotating screen. These tests also revealed that the presence of fibers between 3 and 5 mm long increase the efficiency of a polymer based solid separation system. A rotating screen with apertures 1/8 inch (~3.2 mm) is less effective in providing this critical fiber class than a screen with apertures of 3/16 inch (~4.8 mm). Simulation of phosphorus losses from Maple Leaf Dairy fields irrigated with manure tea water under no-irrigation-through-waterway management and irrigation-through-waterway management: 1) We created a gridded input for SAW-1, the new Maple Leaf field that is slated for pivot irrigation. 2) We created PALMS (Precision Agricultural Landscape Modeling System_ settings files for SAW-1 and ESW (another Maple Leaf field) for years 2008-2013 in preparation for simulations. 3) We made changes to PALMS to better simulate type of cropping and management at Maple Leaf Dairy Farm: we added "harvest type" allowing grain vs. forage for use with a future auto-harvest option; we changed the "litter" routine to leave behind different amounts of plant residue for grain vs. forage harvest; we began programming the auto-harvest option in which harvest is triggered by grain moisture, silage moisture or leaf area index, depending on crop and harvest type. 4) We ran simulations on ESW using 6 years of historical weather to the assess amount of center pivot irrigation if it were to be automated based on keeping top 1m of soil above 50% of field capacity: values ranged from 0mm to 68mm per year on the basis of actual cropping and management records for the ESW field. Economic/Environmental Optimization: We have completed our long-run, sustainable, rotational modelling and have a manuscript in progress summarizing our results. Refinement of the annual "balancing" model to complement the rotational model were initiated. We also initiated a GIS based user interface for running multiple scenarios with the optimization models and presenting spatial results visually. Nutrient Management/Environmental Performance "Analytics": We have extended our SNAP+ data generation (simulation) and environmental functional response analytics to look at detailed soil mapping (2-meter resolution) based Precision Ag variable rate manure nutrient management (with commercial fertilizers to "back fill") crop yield/environmental performance response to nutrient/rotation/tillage management. WI DNR Manure Nutrient Management Policy: On the basis of a SNAP+ argument, the WI DNR and local environmental regulators rejected our proposed "Other Practices" Protocol for Irrigating Separated Manure "Liquids" Through Grass Waterways at Maple Leaf Dairy. We subsequently performed a detailed analysis that documents the inability of SNAP+ to correctly model our proposed irrigation ("fertigation") with separated manure liquids ("tea water" containing <2% small fiber solids). We established that our fertigation protocol delivers environmental performance (soil and phosphorous loss) similar to current practices.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Theory and Computations for Multiple Optimization Problems with Equilibrium Constraints (MOPEC). Tutorial, International Conference on Complementarity Problems, Berlin, Germany, August 4, 2014.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: The convergence of stationary iterations with indefinite splitting. International Conference on Complementarity Problems, Berlin, Germany, August 7, 2014.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Modeling and Optimization of Electricity Markets. Texas - Wisconsin - California Control Consortium Annual Meeting, Madison: October 7, 2014.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Games, optimization bots and fields of fuel. Agricultural and Applied Economics Seminar, Madison: October 15, 2014.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Optimization at WID: interactions with AAE. Presentation to Board of Visitors, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Madison: October 17, 2014.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Modeling and Optimization of Electricity Markets. Tufts University, November 13, 2014.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Nash Equilibria and Discrete Optimization. Argonne National Laboratory, November 20, 2014.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Modeling and Optimization within Interacting Systems. University of Southern California, Los Angeles: February 24, 2015.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Modeling and Optimization within Interacting Systems. Optimization, Sparsity and Adaptive Data Analysis, Chinese Academy of Sciences: March 21, 2015.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Modeling and Optimization within Interacting Systems. 17th British-French-German Conference on Optimization Imperial College, London, June 15, 2015
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Environmental Optimization at Wisconsin: CS and WID. Water@UW Symposium: May 11, 2015.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Liu, Zong and Troy Runge. Dairy Manure Protein Analysis Using UV-Vis Based on the Bradford Method. 2015 ASABE Annual International Meeting, New Orleans, LA (July 28, 2015).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Liu, Zong, Zach Carroll, Sharon Long, and Troy Runge. Cationic Polymer and High-speed Centrifugation Effects on Pathogen Reduction during Manure Solid / Liquid Separation. 2015. Waste to Worth Conference, Seattle, WA (April 1, 2015).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: R.S. Russ, S.R. Wangen, D.L. Nye, and M.C. Ferris. Fields of Fuel: Using a video game to support evidence-based reasoning about sustainability. The Science Teacher, 82(3), 2015.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Cows, Fish, Fields of Fuel and Optimization. Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences Northwestern University, May 25, 2015.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Modeling, Equilibria, Power and Risk. ACNW Optimization Workshop Northwestern University, Chicago June 8, 2015.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: MOPEC, contracts, risk and stochastics. ISMP 2015, Pittsburgh July 13, 2015.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: T.M. Neeson, M.C. Ferris, M.W. Diebel, P.J. Doran, J.R. OHanley, and P.B. McIntyre. Enhancing ecosystem restoration efficiency through spatial and temporal coordination. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(19):6236-6241, 2015.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2015 Citation: F.Beaudry, M.C. Ferris, A.M. Pidgeon, G.A. Bartelt, and V.C. Radeloff. Identifying areas of optimal multispecies conservation value by accounting for incompatibilities between species.Ecological Modelling, submitted, 2015.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Mintz, Martha. Waste to Workhorse, The Furrow. February 2015, Vol 120, issue 2, pages 22  24. www.deere.com
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2015 Citation: Liu, Zong, Mahmoud Sharara, Sundaram Gunasekaran and Troy Runge. Effects of Large-Scale Manure Treatment Processes on Pathogen Reduction, Protein Distributions and Nutrient Concentrations (Transactions ASABE)
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2015 Citation: Yang, Qiang, Shengfei Zhou, and Troy Runge. Dairy Manure as Potential Feedstock for Cost-effective Cellulosic Bioethanol (Bioresources)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Submitted Year Published: 2015 Citation: M.Loewe and M.C. Ferris.Stochastic Programming Techniques: a Case Study using GAMS and Extended Mathematical Programming for Optimal Powerflow. Interfaces, submitted, 2105.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2015 Citation: Liu, Zong, Zach Carroll, Sharon Long, Aicardo Roa-Espinosa, and Troy Runge. Centrifugation Effects on Pathogen Indicators Reduction in Dairy Manure (Transactions ASABE)
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2015 Citation: Liu, Zong, Zach Carroll, Sharon Long, Sundaram Gunasekaran and Troy Runge. Use of Cationic Polymers to Reduce Pathogen Levels during Dairy Manure Separation (Journal of Environmental Management).


Progress 07/15/13 to 07/14/14

Outputs
Target Audience: 1. Dairy producers and their key consultants:bankers and financial analysts, dairy and crop managers, CCAs (certified crop advisors, manure and nutrient management), fertilizer and feed providers, etc. 2. Federal, state, local regulators:USDA/NRCS, WI-DNR, WI-DATCP, County SWCD (soil/water conservation district). 3. Local concerned citizens and environmental groups:Centerville Town Board, Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership and the County Lakes Association. 4. Professional Nutrient Applicators and Nutrient Management Services Changes/Problems: We are using Maple Leaf Dairy (over 4000 cows), rather than Cottonwood Dairy, as our farm site. The very supportive working relationship with Maple Leaf Dairy has allowed us to continuously improve our systems. In Year 1, we sent an “Other Practices” proposal to the Wisconsin DNR and Manitowoc County SWCD group (local/county regulators) as an effort to amend current manure nutrient management regulatory constraints concerning irrigating livestock manures. Subsequently, in meetings with the DNR water quality group, were encouraged to re-package our proposal/request as a “Request for Research Exemption”. In spring 2014, we were informed that the original “Other Practices” protocol was accepted, subject to incorporating substantive DNR comments. Hence, the Request for Research Exemption became moot. We have addressed the DNR comments in a draft to the original proposal, and are working with Maple Leaf Dairy, their CCA, DNR, and local environmental regulators to adopt the proposed “other practices” protocol in 2015. Owing to these changes in approach, our irrigation plans have been delayed. Final approval of protocol is pending, and we hope to be irrigating in year 3. As detailed in our June 26, 2014, communication, our research plan now includes manure pelletization trials at FEECO International rather than on the farm site. By transferring the pelletization operation to FEECO, rather than installing leased equipment at Maple Leaf Dairy, the project will save over $200,000. In addition, at FEECO we have the opportunity to test multiple farms feedstock in different pelletization campaigns to compare and contrast feedstocks from different manure sources, and this will lead to greater scientific advancements. Our original plan envisioned the need for a large-scale ethanol production plant. However, we now do not foresee that the technology for full-scale manure-derived cellulose production will be in place within the lifetime of this project. Small-scale trials will be carried out at the lab scale. Lab scale trials are far more flexible, and we hope to make greater progress following this path. Similarly, a biodiesel production plant on the farm is not required by the project. While originally attractive, such a plant could not meet either the quality nor quantity demands of the farmer. However, as with bioethanol, significant progress can be made at smaller scale. We have identified a supplier to cost effectively provide multiple cold pressed oilseed samples. Purchasing these services/samples eliminates growing a mono crop on the farm and purchasing a large scale press. Scientific data organization remains a significant challenge for the project. While a database has been established, it is not well populated. Additional training and resources will be applied to this area in the coming year. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Customized Week-long course in Advanced Methods in XRF for manure applications, funded by Soil Net; completed by Zong Liu, Malisa Middlebrooks, Kim Huong Pham, Aicardo Roa-Espinosa. (March 30 – April 4, 2014) In factory and on-site applications training in XRD methods development for struvite and percent crystallinity of fibers, funded by Soil Net, completed by Evgeny Filatov, Jared Wolff, Aicardo Roa-Espinosa ( fall 2013, April 7, 2014) How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? In addition to the 7 conference papers and journal articles listed previously, the following demonstrations and seminars were conducted. Roa-Espinosa, Aicardo; hosted group headed by UW Oshkosh & BioFERM, demonstration of granule making from separated, dried manure for fertilizer at FEECO, Green Bay, WI (December 2013) Roa-Espinosa, Aicardo; hosted group from Midwest Biolab & Farms, demonstration of granule making from separated, dried manure for fertilizer at FEECO, Green Bay, WI (January 2014) Roa-Espinosa, Aicardo; hosted delegation of cattlemen from Minnesota headed by Tom Revier, Revier Cattle Company (15,000 cows); demonstration of manure separation technology in lab scale at Soil Net, Belleville, WI and on farm scale at Maple Leaf Dairy (February 28, 2014) Roa-Espinosa, Aicardo; hosted group headed by Tom Revier of Revier Cattle, Minnesota DNR and Ron Bjustrom from Infinity Seed; demonstration of manure separation technology on farm scale at Maple Leaf Dairy (March 13, 2014) Roa-Espinosa, Aicardo; hosted group headed by Gary Zimmer from Midwest Biolab & Farms plus Proteus; demonstration of manure separation technology, fiber separation, pellet manufacturing in lab scale at Soil Net, Belleville, WI and on farm scale at Maple Leaf Dairy (March 28, 2014) Roa-Espinosa, Aicardo; “Manure Separation”, Nutrient Recovery Seminar for large dairy farmers, Twin Falls, Idaho (June 27, 2014) Economics of Manure Processing (23 page PPTx). Tom Cox, UW Ag&Applied Economics. Presented at UW-Dane County Partnership for the Yahara Lakes: Reducing Agricultural Phosphorus Runoff. Friday, May 30, 2014. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Continued research on: Oil clarification, biodiesel refining Post-press oil seed cake as a value added by-product Polymer applications for pathogen control Development and installation of a farm-scale struvite removal system Development of recycled manure fiber as a commercially viable mulch/fertilizer product Cross validation testing of the XRF instrumentation Manure protein analysis including establishing a corrected coefficient of the method and statistical analysis The effect of centrifugation speed on pathogen reduction as well as the relationship between solid content and pathogen population in the separation effluent. Measurement of the manure system separation efficiencies to provide data for the economic and sustainability models Improving alkali pretreatment of manure by looking both at temperature effects and addition of other dissolution aids Newly isolated termite yeasts for taxonomic and molecular phylogenic comparisons to determine how realistic the production of cellulosic ethanol can be with recalcitrant anaerobically digested manure The effects of maceration and milling on the production of biogas Integration of our optimal, farm field specific, Long Run “Sustainable” manure NMP and rotation results into the sequentially linked shorted run models: Year’s (time) to achieve the long run equilibrium at what cost Detailed farm field specific NMPs, potentially using Precision Ag VRT (variable rate technologies) Further augmentation of our CAPEX/OPEX analyses of alternative separation technologies In conjunction with the Runge Lab and SoilNet, the optimization group will also need to sample, analyze, and validate the process flow/balance (Input/Output) associated with these technologies: quantities and composition, potential losses, energy/labor usage, etc. Adding additional separation options to the optimization model Completion of our rotation based validations of the optimal farm/field specific NMPs and rotations by running these results back through SNAP+ Completion of our revised “Other Practices” protocol for fertigating separated manure liquids through grass waterways; submit it to DNR, engage both DNR and the Manitowoc County SWCS team and interested others (Maple Leaf Dairy neighbors, environmentalists) in an education/outreach effort to get local approval for the proposed protocol. Based upon this approval, initiate the execution, measurement/analysis and validation of the proposed protocol for 2015 and 2016 Continuation of on-farm sampling protocols and lab testing to study system efficiencies as a whole on manure separation

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Biogas: We will improve manure processing by replacing the clarifier, which has proven to be insufficient for the needs at Maple Leaf Dairy, by a custom designed 400 ft2 Diffused Air Floatation (DAF) system. Soil Net LLC and Braun Electric determined through a combination of bench-scale, pilot plant, and on-site testing that optimal separation is achieved by decreasing the size of the micro-bubbles diffused through the water in the DAF to 25 microns and by adding S-1000 SAL polymer. The new DAF system, which is designed to create a consistent feedstock of 10% solids to the digester for biogas production and recycled flush water containing less than 1.8% solids, will be brought on-line in year three. Rapid analysis of macro and micro nutrients in manure: We have developed rapid analytical techniques based on X-ray florescence (XRF) that require very little sample manipulation and preparation. They enable us to analyze various points in the manure processing pipeline quickly in-house. Manure Separation: The effect of cationic polymer flocculent in dairy manure liquid/solid separation operation was investigated through a fundamental study that monitored both liquid/solid separation and reduction in pathogen via measurement of a pathogen indicator organism. The cationic polymer (PDCD, polydicyandiamide) has potential as a new additive depending on the requirements and needs of the farm. A second study was initiated to understand the best mechanism to measure protein/amino acids in dairy manure in the presence of high concentrations of other nitrogenous compounds. The Bradford method using UV-Vis spectroscopy gave the most consistent results and will be used going forward. Energy production from manure fiber: We pursued two different avenues for improving conversion of the remaining carbohydrates to ethanol. (1) We investigated a pretreatment protocol that utilized NaOH and aqueous ammonia as a supplementary reagents to remove lignin and other substrate features to enhance the enzyme accessibility for fiber digestion. The completed studies did show improved digestion of fibers with this treatment; however the cost was too high for economic production of ethanol. (2) We investigated the use of novel enzymes and yeasts as pretreatment. We carried out screening experiments with a variety of cellulases to identify whether any combination of strains would more improve the effective yield of sugars. Results to date have not shown marked improvements over commercial enzymes. Biodiesel production: We initiated an investigation into the use of SoilNet clarification polymers to improve biodiesel clarity and quality. Several cold press oils were obtained (canola, soy, camelina) and crude corn oil. Preliminary experiments have identified the polymer types and dosages that most effectively separate fatty acids and glycerol from the biodiesel. Lifecycle analysis: Numerous samples were taken and analyzed to provide information on the separation of solids and nutrients through the manure processing pipeline installed at Maple Leaf Dairy. This information has been put into a mass/component balance and will be used as the lifecycle inventory for analyses. In the absence of problems with the analytical approach being used, the data indicate that large nutrient losses are occurring to the system (for example, by loss of ammonia through volatilization). Manure collection process and Solid depleted flush water: By using a repurposed DAF positioned after the digester, we have been able to bring the solid content in the nutrient depleted water (NDW) to < 2.0%. This enables use of the reclaimed NDW for bedding flush. Large fiber collection process and struvite removal: We tested various approaches to removing struvite compounds from the manure processing pipeline by precipitation. The most effective approach leading to struvite precipitation was found to be the addition of sodium hydroxide to raise the pH along with the addition of 40 ppm magnesium chloride. By reducing struvite formation in the system we aim to reduce maintenance downtime at many points in the manure handling system. Bedding fiber collection process: We have implemented a direct transmission auger system surrounded by a laser perforated screen which dramatically reduces maintenance time and cost. We have determined that the large fibers should not be drier than 65%, because drier fibers can be blown around by barn ventilation and create a respiratory irritant. Post digestion DAF, Multi-disk press Granulation process: We have developed a process to transform the post digester DAF solids into a fertilizer product with the available nutrient content (NPK) of 3-5-2. Following the success of our lab scale run, we prepared 1500 lbs. of dry multi-disk solids at 12% moisture and 2000 lbs. of wet Multi-Disk Press solids at 70% moisture content, as well as 500 lbs. of dry recycled manure fiber to perform an industrial scale trial at FEECO’s facility in Green Bay. This trial was successful, and we plan to build on that success with a larger industrial scale run in year 3. Use of Oil/Biodiesel for the Production of Grain or Cellulosic Ethanol: In year two, Soil Net LLC developed a low-cost technology to separate oil cake into fiber, protein and oil. The process adds value by increasing the stability of the oil and by producing concentrated protein for animal feed. The fiber may also have commercial uses. Simulation of phosphorus losses from Maple Leaf Dairy fields irrigated with manure tea water under no-irrigation-through-waterway management and irrigation-through-waterway management: Created a utility to produce year-long hourly weather files in a more automated manner. Created annual weather files for Maple Leaf Dairy for 6 year period (2008-2013) from Manitowoc County Memorial Airport ASOS station (surface measurements) and SSEC hourly insolation product (derived from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite data). Created gridded input needed for modeling for two of the three field sets (5 fields total). Completed were ESW and AK-BK1/HA-S45/HV-1. Not done yet is HAPS-1. Gridded input was derived from digitized on-site surveys, County permitting maps, Soil Survey data, and information from farm personnel. Added functions to the Precision Agricultural Landscape Modeling System (PALMS) to allow required simulations, including ability to read in organic matter maps, ability to read in Bray P maps, auto irrigation option, ability to read in and use no-spray maps (regions where irrigation is not allowed), separated c3 grass and alfalfa plant functional types, created separate harvesting for grass and alfalfa, changed c4 grass behavior from annual growth to in-season growth (similar to c3 grass behavior), added ability to have more than one tillage event per day. Added material to PALMS manual: instructions on using weather creation program, new input maps and irrigation options. Economic/Environmental Optimization: We optimize over crop rotations and manure nutrient management using separated manure products and field specific environmental performance (soil and PI loss) constraints. Cost of Production: To support the economics underlying the optimization we compute the costs of crop production/hauling and manure processing/application under a variety of market and technology assumptions. Nutrient Management/Environmental Performance “Analytics”: To support the environmental dimensions underlying the optimization we use SNAP+ as a data generation/simulation tool to derive environmental performance (soil and PI loss) forecasting equations. WI DNR Manure Nutrient Management Policy: We continue to adapt and refine our Proposed “Other Practices” Protocol for Irrigating Separated Manure “Liquids” Through Grass Waterways in coordination with Maple Leaf Dairy, WI DNR and local environmental regulators.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Elumalai, Sasikumar �; Liu, Zong �; Roa-Espinosa, Aicardo � �; Markley; John L. � and Runge, Troy M. �; Post-Biogas Digestion Dairy Manure Fibers for Cellulosic Bioethanol Production; ASABE Annual International Meeting, Montreal, QC Canada (July 13-16, 2014)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Pham, Kim Huong; Accelerated Renewable Energy Consortium, Life Cycle Assessment, Wisconsin Energy Institute Showcase, (Oct 15-16, 2013)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Roa-Espinosa, Aicardo; Accelerated Renewable Energy Consortium, Production of Granulated Bio-nutrients from Dairy Manure, Wisconsin Energy Institute Showcase, (Oct 15-16, 2013)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Runge, Troy; Elumalai, Sasikumar; Roa-Espinosa, Aicardo; and Markley, John. Manure Fiber to Ethanol. 2013 TAPPI International Bioenergy & Bioproducts Conference (September 19, 2013)
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Elumalai, Sasikumar; Roa-Espinosa, Aicardo; Markley, John L.; and Runge, Troy M. "Combined sodium hydroxide and ammonium hydroxide pretreatment of post-biogas digestion dairy manure fiber for cost effective cellulosic bioethanol production." Sustainable Chemical Processes 2, no. 1 (2014).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Liu, Zong; Carroll, Zachary; Long, Sharon; and Runge, Troy. Effects of Polymer and Centrifugation Speed on Pathogen Indicators Reduction in Dairy Manure. ASABE Annual International Meeting, Montreal, QC Canada (July 13-16, 2014)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Roa-Espinosa, Aicardo, Manure Separation for Biofuels and Bio-based Products, oral presentation with simultaneous translation into Mandarin, World Dairy Expo/China14, Xian, China (June 13-15, 2014)


Progress 07/15/12 to 07/14/13

Outputs
Target Audience: Dairy producers and their key consultants: bankers and financial analysts, dairy and crop managers, CCAs (certified crop advisors, manure and nutrient management), fertilizer and feed providers, etc. Federal, state, local regulators: USDA/NRCS, WI-DNR, WI-DATCP, County SWCD (soil/water conservation district). Local concerned citizens and environmental groups: Centerville Town Board, Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership and the County Lakes Association. Professional Nutrient Applicators and Nutrient Management Services Changes/Problems: We encountered initial pushback with regard to some of our on-farm manure nutrient management research plans. This required us to develop educational materials that presented the sound scientific basis for our approach. This research will require WI-DNR regulatory approval and a local (town board) waiver (variance) in order to fertigate separated manure "tea waters" through grass waterways. Given implication from the Clean Water Act, EPA oversight and/or approval may also be required. On-farm research plans to monitor, analyze and validate the proposed fertigation protocol will commence after these approvals are obtained. NOTE: this fertigation protocol is not an explicit part of our BRDI proposal. Funding constraints required us to be creative in developing industrial partners willing to provide equipment at low prices. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Training The ARE program has contributed to training of three graduate students, Hongbo Dong (Wisconsin Institute for Discovery), Zong Liu (Department of Biological Systems Engineering) and Kim Huong Pham (Department of Biological Systems Engineering), two postdoctoral trainees, Sasikumal Elumalai and Damodhara R. Mailapalli (both Department of Biological Systems Engineering), and three undergraduate students, Jesse Holzer, Shane Mathis and Lisa Tang. Professional Development Postdoctoral trainee Damodhara Mailapalli gave an oral presentation at the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) 2012 Annual International Meeting: Mailapalli, D.R., A.M. Thompson, and A. Roa. 2012. Phosphorus movement in soils following application of polyacrylamide coated biosolid. Oral presentation. ASABE 2012 Annual International Meeting. Dallas, Texas. July 29- Aug 1, 2012. Paper No. 121337806. Graduate student Zong Liu attended the 109th American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) annual conference (Miami, FL, Jul. 31-Aug. 3, 2012) at which his paper "Identification of Salt-induced Changes in Leaf and Root Proteomes of the Wild Tomato, Solanum chilense" (J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 136:288-302) was named the ASHS Outstanding Vegetable Publication Award winner for papers published in 2011. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Oral Presentations Brown Gold: The Smell of $$$: Optimizing Economic/Environmental Sustainability via Manure Separation and Bio-Feedstocks. Tom Cox: Ag & Applied Economics, UW-Madison Michael Ferris & Hongbo Dong: Computer Science, UW-Madison Presented to the Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery – Doing Optimization at Wisconsin (WID-DOW) Seminar, Optimizing Economic/Environmental Sustainability Seminar, December 3, 2012. MANURE SEPARATION: A KEY Pathway to Profitable Environmental Stewardship? John Norman: Emeritus, Soil Science, UW-Madison Tom Cox: Ag & Applied Economics, UW-Madison Jim Leverich: UW-Extension Aicardo Roa: Soil Net, Inc. Troy Runge: Biological Systems Engineering, UW-Madison John Markley: Biochemistry, UW-Madison Presented to USDA/NRCS (federal) WI/DNR (state) and SWCD (county) regulators, January, 2013. A summary of our current manure separation research results, implications for federal/state/local soil and water conservation and manure nutrient management planning monitoring and regulation, as well as future on-farm research and outreach under the BRDI project. Brown Gold: The Smell of $$$. Tom Cox: Ag & Applied Economics, UW-Madison Presented to 2013 National Dairy Producers Conference, Mining Manure: An Economic Case for Nutrient Management, April 7 - 9, 2013,Indianapolis, IN. Land Application of Separated Liquid Manure Products on Wisconsin Farms: Proposal for approval of "other practices" under Item (6) in DNR 243.14(4) SWQMA Application Restrictions. John Norman: Emeritus, UW Soil Science Tom Cox: Ag&Applied Economics, UW-Madison Jim Leverich: UW-Extension Presented to the Manitowoc County SWCD group (local/county regulators) and the Executive Director of a local environmental group, Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership, June 25, 2013. New Technologies in Manure Separation Jim Leverich: UW-Extension Presented to the 2013 Professional Nutrient Applicators Association of Wisconsin Conference: New Technologies in Manure Separation, January, 2013,Wisconsin Dells, WI. Proposal John Norman, Tom Cox, Jim Leverich (2013). Proposal for approval of "other practices" (Under Item (6) in DNR 243.14(4) SWQMA Application Restrictions) for the Land Application of Separated Liquid Manure Products on Wisconsin Farms. Draft protocol/procedure presented to the WI DNR (state regulators) for using center pivot irrigation to fertigate separated manure liquids (“tea waters”) across grass waterways. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We will continue with our Research Plan.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Major activities completed during this first year of the program Assembled our team of scientists and engineers, Assembled equipment for the Manure Processing System component of our on-farm research and demonstration installation, Developed procedures for collection and analysis of samples from the Manure Processing System, Performed physical, chemical and biological characterizations of the raw manure at the research site, Developed a database for tracking samples and data throughout the program, and Performed laboratory-scale experiments to develop effective Manure Processing treatments including the following: A novel two-step manure solid separation method was developed that sequentially applies Soil Net polymers 1000SAL and SL5000 (Poly-Formaldehyde-dicyandiamide) to precipitate solids from raw manure. A granulation process using a pin mixer/macerator to produce pellets from dry manure fractions was developed and optimized to yield maximum recovery of the desired granule size by adjusting the moisture content of the feedstock, amount of added polymer, rotational speed and feed volume. A chemical pretreatment for separated manure fibers using the pin mixer/macerator was developed and used to produce delignified, reduced-size particles suitable for enzymatic saccharification in bioethanol production. Significant results achieved as changes in knowledge due to the laboratory-scale experiments Knowledge of the two-step manure solid separation method using 1000SAL and SL5000 will be used to design scaled-up trials at the on-farm research and demonstration site. Data for granulation and delignification of separated manure solids determined at the laboratory scale have been used to design a pin-mixer/macerator for installation as part of the Bioethanol System. Stated goals not yet met The full experimental pipeline has not yet been completed. Missing are the Bioethanol, Biodiesel and Crop Systems, improvements to the Biogas system and the installation of automated controls. The database system has been created, but data are not yet being entered. This will require training of staff members.

Publications