Source: PANCOPIA, INC. submitted to
SWINE LAGOON TREATMENT AND ODOR CAPPING SYSTEM
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
SMALL BUSINESS GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1015904
Grant No.
2018-33610-28501
Cumulative Award Amt.
$100,000.00
Proposal No.
2018-00613
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2018
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2019
Grant Year
2018
Program Code
[8.4]- Air, Water and Soils
Project Director
Cumbie, W.
Recipient Organization
PANCOPIA, INC.
1100 EXPLORATION WAY, STE 302Q
HAMPTON,VA 23666
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Large-scale swine production has grown dramatically in the past two decades, creating adverse environmental and health effects. In North Carolina alone, health impacts of atmospheric emissions are estimated to exceed $300 million. Coupled with environmental damages, this has resulted in moratoriums on new facilities, as well as tougher regulations for waste streams. An effective treatment and odor capping system for lagoons has the potential to provide important economic, health, and environmental benefits.Pancopia proposes to develop a swine waste treatment system that can effectively remove pollutants and lower atmospheric emissionsfrom swine lagoons. The proposed treatment systemhasbeen developed as part ofPancopia's currentNASA research to recycle wastewater on the International Space Station.If successful, thistreatment process would deliver highly effective, robust treatment for wastewater in swine lagoons at a significantly lower cost than current options.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
0%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
11135992020100%
Knowledge Area
111 - Conservation and Efficient Use of Water;

Subject Of Investigation
3599 - Swine, general/other;

Field Of Science
2020 - Engineering;
Goals / Objectives
Large-scale swine production has grown dramatically in the past two decades, creating adverse environmental and health effects. In North Carolina alone, health impacts of atmospheric emissions are estimated to exceed $300 million. Coupled with environmental damages, this has resulted in moratoriums on new facilities, as well as tougher regulations for waste streams. An effective treatment and odor capping system for lagoons has the potential to provide important economic, health, and environmental benefits.Pancopia proposes to develop an innovative swine lagoon treatment and odor capping system incorporating the anammox organism which can remove nitrogen at one-third current treatment costs. Pancopia's current research for NASA indicates our proprietary NDX system, which includes patented organisms licensed from the USDA, can remove nitrogen at significantly lower cost than existing technology.
Project Methods
Pancopia's Phase 1 research is focused on establishing feasibility of application of Nitrifier/Denitrifier/Anammox (NDX) technology to remove or transform ammonia in the surface layer of a lagoon and the recirculation of that surface layer to provide an odor cap for the lagoon. The research has three primary objectives:1) Determine the best design and operating range of the reactors with regard to flow, air addition, and loading.2) Construct Beta reactors and test Beta reactors,3) Analyze data, prepare report, plan for Phase II. These objectives will be accomplished by completing thefollowing three tasks:Task 1: Development of Alpha reactors• Design Alpha reactor; perform 2-dimensional Computation Fluid Dynamics (CFD)analysis to develop reactor geometry that will promote laminar flow.• Build Alpha reactor and test pumping equipment and settings for hydraulic performance.• Determine appropriate aeration rate, specific removal and transformation rates of ammonia.Task 2: Testing of Beta reactors• Build Six Beta reactors.• Three one-week static tests. Develop NH3 removal curves.• 12-week continuous loading tests.Task 3: Technical and economic analysis and preparation of final report - analysis of data, economics of system, Phase II testing• Technical Analysis• Economic analysis• Phase II test planThe feasibility of the proposed approach will be evaluated based on the reduction of ammoniagas in the head space of the Beta reactors during twelve-week testing. An average 25%reduction in ammonia in the treatment reactors compared to the controls will be considered successful, since it will demonstrate effectiveness of both the odor-capping concept and the treatment system design.

Progress 09/01/18 to 08/30/19

Outputs
Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Through this project, Pancopia has established connections with swine producersand associated organizations that can beneficially implement this lagoon-cappingtechnology and technologies that stem from it. These connections include branches of theUSDA, academic institutions, and swine farming corporations. One of these corporations is currently in discussions to implement technologies stemming from parts of the research conducted under this Phase I SBIR Grant. However, due toa Non-Disclosure Agreement, Pancopia cannot disclose the name of the major swine producer. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The feasibility criterion was defined as achieving over 20% reduction in gaseous ammonia emissions in the treatment units vs. the controls. Both alpha and beta models greatly exceeded the criterion throughout the continuous testing period. The alpha model had higher aqueous ammonia transformation efficiencies than the beta model, but this gap narrowed over the experimental period. The beta reactors were started later than the alpha reactors, and the reduced time for biomass growth is likely the reason for the lower efficiency in the beta model. Gaseous ammonia reductions were highest and most consistent in the beta model, approaching 100% throughout the test. This was driven primarily by the lower pH maintained in the beta reactor compared to the alpha. Beta model reactors were found to have a higher nitrification rate (13.4 mg/L?d) than alpha models (11.1 mg/L?d) during static testing. Since nitrification produces hydronium ions as a product of the reaction, this higher nitrification rate may be the cause of the lower pH.Denitrification consumes hydronium ions and raises the pH, so the higher apparent rate of denitrification observed in SW5 vs. SW7 may also contribute to the pH difference between the two systems. Given the parity in treatment performance and stratification effectiveness between the alpha and beta models, choosing a design direction for future development must be based on other factors.The air-lift pump used in the beta model has significant advantages in terms of reliability and robustness of design over the circulation pump and aerator used in the alpha model.Since the air-lift would be driven by a shore-based compressor and have no moving parts in the swine lagoon, it would be easier to service and less likely to suffer mechanical failure due to fouling by solids in the lagoon.The primary disadvantage of the air-lift pump is reduced control over recirculation flow rate, as it varies non-linearly with air flow rate.This is a minor concern, however, since the recirculation flow rates in these units are not intended to be adjusted after initial setup.The beta model should be the basis for further development.

Publications