Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience: Existing Ag retail chains. Most ag retailers do not know how to support organic farms and do not have products to sell them. They won't invest in supporting organic until they have products to sell to monetize that advice. The new product lines, like the conventional TerraNu products that precede them, are an entry point that conventional Ag Retail chains are eager to take on to allow them to access this growing market. Changes/Problems:Our strategy has continued to change as we have explored new products and identified new candidates/processes for optimizing the flocculation process. Our Phase I work identified alginate, derived from brown seaweeds, as a strong treatment candidate when it is combined with a cationic activator such as calcium. We demonstrated, at laboratory scale, a method to isolate alginate from seaweed, and subsequently to manufacture fertilizer from ADE in a process consistent with existing NOP rules. This process proves very effective, but only when enough calcium cations are added to the treatment. The amount of calcium needed for the alginate treatment was a constraint in moving forward due to both cost and the high salts or chloride load on the flow-through wastewater effluent when soluble calcium chloride is used as the calcium source. In an effort to reduce the amount of calcium chloride needed, we began researching priming agents and discovered that adding a cross-linking agent improved our flocculation trials significantly and allowed us more flexibility to try new materials and revisit others. Unfortunately we were not able to eliminate calcium chloride from the flocculation process so moved on to researching other flocculant agents that would not require the addition of a soluble calcium source. As we continued work on refining flocculation processes and reducing the amount of flocculant needed, we tested a suite of novel approaches to flocculation and achieved success by combining sparging the ADE with CO2 before adding a flocculant in order to lower pH and achieve better flocculation. When combing sparging with adding an organic-approved acetic acid source and then chitosan, we saw good flocculation. We were then able to scale up to larger laboratory jar tests (2L), separate off the solids and send them to the lab for nutrient analysis. Nutrient levels were very similar to those obtained when using a commercial polyacrylamide flocculant. Given the quality of the flocculated solids and the good nutrient content, we proceeded with making a small batch of granulated fertilizer. We took 100g of solids, added 200g of a dry fertilizer blend that included calcium sulfate, calcium carbon and rock phosphate and 3g of a binding agent and heated the blend to 300 degrees F while continuously mixing the blend. The resulting fertilizer granulated nicely. The next step will be to scale up to a larger batch of fertilizer which would be used for grow room trials, but unfortunately we lost our lab space at this time in the testing process and were unable to proceed with a larger batch test. The next step in the research process will be to make larger batch tests of the successful chitosan flocculant and test it on plants in a grow room trial. We are currently looking for lab space and also working with our USDA partners to coordinate work in their lab once it reopens. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In order to accomplish our goals during the next reporting period, we need to move forward to refining our chitosan flocculant process and work on generating our own chitosan product from micronized chitin rather than relying on a commercial product.Thiswill move us closer toour goal of having both an effective organic-compliant flocculant and one that is cost effective. Unfortunately, Midwestern BioAg just went through receivership and sale to a new owner, and that owner elected not to keep the lab space. In addition, our USDA collaborator, Rafael Garcia, does not have access to his lab space right now due to the COVID-19 epidemic. So for now lab work is at a standstill, though we continue to look for new lab space to rent. Until lab space is available again, work on this project is confined to literature review, discussions, and analysis of existing data. Once lab space becomes available again the focus will turn to replicating the successful chitosan flocculant system, granulating the resulting flocculated solids and testing the solids for nutrient content and physical characteristics. When acceptable cake granulation is achieved, we will begin to create lab-generated fertilizer by adding the necessary binder and nutrients that make up a complete fertilizer product. The performance of the fertilizer will be tested in grow room trials by observing or quantifying traits such as fertilizer solubility, soil interaction, and crop growth characteristics.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Further refine the product formulations, methods, and processes to increase their cost-effectiveness by reducing the required amounts and exploring lower-cost variants of the same materials. Our Phase I product formulations have been refined and changed drastically, and the testing methods have been standardized to address new challenges and processes that we have encountered since then. This has provided a more consistent and representable approach in how we have been running the experimental testing. In researching ways to increase the effectiveness of the treatments, we discovered new processes that had not been tried yet--namely, priming the ADE with a cross-linking agent. This process has allowed us to reduce flocculant and activator material inputs, thereby increasing their cost-effectiveness. Priming has also allowed us to switch to a less expensive and more commercially available variant of the primary flocculants. In addition, we began sparging the ADE with CO2 before adding flocculants in order to reduce the initial pH and thus reduce the amount of added acid needed to achieve good flocculation. 2. Further test the flocculation and NOP-compliant nature of the resulting material to build the dataset for NOP submission. In refining product formulations, a large amount of flocculation testing was necessary. We apply a vast array of constraints on material additions to our testing to address material/process costs, NOP status of material/process, material transport/supply, sustainability of the system, and other economic or logistical concerns. All flocculants and primers are assessed for their NOP-compliance or their potential to meet the organic regulations. In order to keep track of our materials, treatments and test method adjustments, we created a database where all of our experiments are recorded. This database has extensive data on over 9000 different tests and their outcomes. 3. Scale up the testing of the material to larger volume solids-separation to validate that it will work at commercially relevant scales. Four of the most successful flocculation treatments from the small vial tests were scaled up to bench-scale DAF testing to determine their effectiveness at larger volume. These tests were run at our CRADA partner's USDA lab in Pennsylvania, and flocculating agents were left with the lab team so tests could continue to be run over the next few months as we made tweaks to our methods. The bench-scale DAF tests using the alginate based flocculants were not as successful as the testing done in vials. Because of the mediocre performance of the flocculants in the bench-DAF system, more research was conducted over the following months on DAF system mechanics, bubble size, flocculant volume, and how ADE solids content affected flocculant effectiveness. Based on the bench-scale DAF testing, a new line of testing was developed using CO2 sparging to lower ADE pH before adding any flocculants. 4. Test lab-scale and pilot-scale granulation to ensure that the resulting solids will granulate with the same effectiveness and quality characteristics of the current non-NOP compliant materials. Granulation was tested using the new flocculant formulations developed after the initial bench-scale DAF tests showed weaknesses in the alginate flocculant system. A new flocculation methodology using CO2 sparging followed by an organic-approved acidic acid/iron sulfate pH adjustment and chitosan flocculant showed a lot of promise. The new chitosan-based flocculant system scaled up better than the alginate flocculants, so this flocculant was used in lab-scale granulation testing. Granulation using the chitosan flocculant system was successful and a small batch of fertilizer was produced in the lab. 5. Create appropriate volumes of granulated fertilizers for demonstration of physical and chemical properties. A small batch of granulated fertilizer was produced, but was not large enough to use for testing physical and chemical properties of the fertilizer. 6. Create appropriate volumes of granulated fertilizers for field trials on organic row-crops. We have not yet accomplished this goal. We plan to produce appropriate volumes of granulated experimental fertilizer for field trials for application to crops this coming year. 7. Initiate business development, detailed market research, customer survey, and training of sales teams for introduction of the new product to the market Market research has been initiated. Final product development is not far enough along where we know what the final product properties are, but we know what is possible and where we realistically want to be. 8. Appropriately protect Intellectual Property as created. An application for a patent has been submitted for the solids separation to fertilizer production process. All information generated from this project is considered trade secret.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19
Outputs
Target Audience:Target Audience Existing organic farmers. Many, if not most, organic row-crop farmers rely on a low-input, low-yield system. This can still be profitable at today's organic crop prices. However, there are many benefits in improved profits, soils and markets if they adopt a more intensive management system. This product line makes that adoption easier. Upgrading the farming system of existing farms is a key target. Midwestern BioAg has reached over 4,000 organic farms in the past decade and has a unique channel to achieve this goal. Existing conventional farmers who want to expand into organic. Midwestern BioAg has a 35 year history of helping conventional farms shift to a more "biological" style of farming. While this increases yield and profits when farming conventional, it also increases their toolkit for farming organic and makes that transition easier. Only about 1% of farms in the US are organic while 5% of the food eaten by consumers is organic. There is a strong opportunity for existing, skilled conventional farms to take on organic production. This new product line makes that easier and MBA has a long history of reaching these kinds of farmers. MBA knows how to reach both communities and how to work with larger, conventional farms to show them how to cost-effectively transition to high-production organic. Existing Ag retail chains. Most ag retailers do not know how to support organic farms and do not have products to sell them. They won't invest in supporting organic until they have products to sell to monetize that advice. The new product lines, like the conventional TerraNu products that precede them, are an entry point that conventional Ag Retail chains are eager to take on to allow them to access this growing market. Food consumers. Consumers are demanding more organic food products. In the largest food companies, organic and natural products are the only categories that are expanding. The supply of crops to meet this demand is currently one of the limits to the expansion of these product lines. Changes/Problems:Since starting Phase II of this project, we have revised key standard practices to more accurately reflect the conditions of the ADE at the Fair Oaks digester and to exclude certain practices that would not be feasible on an industrial scale. First, we stopped screening out larger solids from the ADE that could clog up pipettes during testing as this was not reflective of actual conditions at the dairy digester. We also realized that ADE needed to be collected more often so that we were not basing all of our results on one batch of ADE collected at one time point. We now collect and freeze fresh ADE monthly and thaw a new container to use each week. While these steps introduced more variability into our experimental flocculation results, this insight was valuable since we will need to account for realistic daily to monthly variability in the quality of the ADE that the digester produces. Trying to control for the wide ranging variability in solids content of the ADE has proven to be very difficult, and it has impacted how well a flocculant works at given dosage. We also have set up a second station in the lab to increase our screening capacity. Since these changes have been implemented, we have not been able to replicate the methylated hemoglobin results. We have thoroughly tested the methylated hemoglobin and other similar blood-based or blood-derived products recommended to us by our collaborators, and our Phase II data showed that these blood-based products did not flocculate well in our system at commercially viable concentrations. Additionally, there isn't enough supply of the hemoglobin needed to commercially scale this process. The time-intensive biodegradability step under organic rules was also problematic at the volumes of treated sludge we'd produce given time and storage constraints. Due to this issues, we have removed the biodegradability parameter from our search and switched all of our focus to NOP-compliant polymer treatment options. Our strategy has continued to change as we have explored new products and identified new candidates/processes for optimizing the flocculation process. Our Phase I work identified alginate, derived from brown seaweeds, as a strong treatment candidate when it is combined with a cationic activator such as calcium. We demonstrated, at laboratory scale, a method to isolate alginate from seaweed, and subsequently to manufacture fertilizer from ADE in a process consistent with existing NOP rules. This process proves very effective, but only when enough calcium cations are added to the treatment. The amount of calcium needed for the alginate treatment has been a constraint in moving forward due to the high salts or chloride load on the flow-through wastewater effluent when soluble calcium chloride is used as the calcium source. In our journey to produce an organic certified fertilizer, we have been very conscious of the sustainability of the process and must take into account the potential impacts on soil health of the immediate land that produces feed for the dairy (which uses the treated wastewater effluent for irrigation). Therefore, optimization of the Phase I candidates and processes was necessary to support fully NOP-compliant manufacturing of fertilizer. Optimization research led us to priming with a cross-linking agent, which improved our flocculation trials significantly and allowed us more flexibility to try new materials and revisit others. Through this new examination of materials, we changed the type of seaweeds used and tightened up our seaweed preparation protocols. Until very recently, there has been no NOP-compliant polymer available for flocculation of solids in water treatment. However, we have a collaborator that is working on development of cationic starches that are potentially NOP-compliant, and that have shown great results in flocculation trials. Our greatest hurdle has been to replicate the results of a synthetic cationic polyacrylamide, which is virtually impossible with natural polymers. However, when combined with a cross-linking primer, the starches are added as the sole flocculant reducing or eliminating the cationic calcium activator inputs needed in an alginate treatment. We have been able to successfully reduce the total material inputs and waste concerns by using these starches. However, since they are brand new products, they are not commercially available yet and have not yet gone through process analysis to ensure they meet all of the NOP rules. One major problem we have run into recently has been achieving flotation of the flocs in laboratory jar tests. Our ability to replicate a large scale DAF is currently very limited in-lab, and we need to test on a larger scale and improve our jar testing protocol to better represent true DAF conditions. However, we have not ruled out the possibility of modifying or changing up the treatment system. This could include modifying the DAF treatment process to improve flotation and/or introducing a settling step, static screens, centrifuges, or evaporative systems. Throughout this project, the cost of production and material inputs has been a major part of the development process. It is much more expensive to develop a flocculant organically than it is conventionally, and this is another reason why different solids separation systems are being considered. This is especially important if a different system means that we can also reduce our material inputs and increase solids recovery. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?An outside consultant with expertise in chemistry was brought in to help with understanding the flocculation chemistry. The consultant has greatly influenced the project and has increased our understanding of the chemical and physical processes happening throughout the entire process from raw materials to final product. He has trained us in the relevant chemistry and has helped streamline our screening process. This has greatly improved our professional development as researchers, and has significantly helped in moving the project along towards a valuable NOP-compliant fertilizer. We have made many trips to the digester/post-digestion treatment system at our business partner's dairy farm. This is also where our fertilizer manufacturing plant is located. In addition to our routine trips to collect ADE and other samples, we have made a point to visit in order to get a better look at the equipment and system flow used to take raw manure all the way to granulated fertilizer. This has included more communication with the relevant staff, and has helped in developing a relationship between them and the newer members of our R&D team. It is important for everyone working on this project to understand how the material flows through the system and to recognize the machinery and scale of the operation. Planning the trip down to our USDA collaborator's lab to test on their bench-scale DAF has also provided a great opportunity to further develop our professional relationship and to be trained on using a bench-scale DAF. In addition to planning the trip with our collaborator, we have exchanged testing materials and methods that have allowed us to learn new laboratory techniques for further flocculation testing. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are working with additional outside collaborators on refining potential starch-based polymers to make the solids separation process more effective. These starches are potentially NOP-compliant and are very attractive due to the reduction in material outputs compared to our current experimental flocculation treatments. These starches are also in the development phase, so there are questions about supply and cost that remain unknown for now. We plan on building or buying a bench-scale DAF for our lab. A key part of moving forward in this project will be testing at a larger scale to produce cake and wastewater effluent, as well as to better represent the full-scale DAF treatment processes. In order to remain as flexible in our AD solids separation process as possible, we have not ruled out the possibility of modifying our current DAF system or shifting to a different solids separation process other than DAF. Therefore, we are interested in additional pilot-scale testing of static screens and certain centrifugation systems for solids separation. Once we begin producing more volumes of cake and wastewater effluent from larger volume tests, we will begin grow room testing using the wastewater we generate in order to ensure there are no adverse effects on crops (it is common practice for the dairy to irrigate with this wastewater). Around the same time as grow room testing, we hope to start experimenting with granulation of the cake produced from our larger volume tests. When acceptable cake granulation is achieved, we will begin to create lab-generated fertilizer by adding the necessary binder and nutrients that make up a complete fertilizer product. The performance of the fertilizer will be determined in lab tests and grow room trials by observing or quantifying traits such as fertilizer solubility, soil interaction, and crop growth characteristics.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Our Phase I product formulations have been refined and changed drastically, and the testing methods have been standardized to address new challenges and processes that we have encountered since then. This has provided a more consistent and representable approach in how we have been running the experimental testing. In researching ways to increase the effectiveness of the treatments, we discovered new processes that had not been tried yet--namely, priming the ADE with a cross-linking agent. This process has allowed us to reduce flocculant and activator material inputs, thereby increasing their cost-effectiveness. Priming has also allowed us to switch to a less expensive and more commercially available variant of the primary flocculants. In refining product formulations, a large amount of flocculation testing was necessary. Unlike during Phase I, we now apply a vast array of constraints on material additions to our testing to address material/process costs, NOP status of material/process, material transport/supply, sustainability of the system, and other economic or logistical concerns. In order to keep track of our materials, treatments and test method adjustments, we created a database where all of our experiments are recorded. The resulting dataset shows how far we have come and the amount of testing that has been done to get to this point of having multiple treatments that are or could be NOP-compliant. Market research has been initiated to determine how to take the product to market. Final product development is not far enough along where we know what the final product formulation or cost will be, but we are close enough to knowing these parameters that we are able to take the first steps in market analysis.
Publications
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