Poultry Waste Cleans Up Polluted Water

By Anonymous

Could heat transform poultry waste into a heavy-metal magnet?

Chicken manure and heat may sound like a bad combination, but chemists at the U.S. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have taken the abundant waste product and turned it into a filtering product that can clean up polluted waters simply by adding heat, according to an ARS press release.

Researchers Isabel Lima and Wayne Marshall at the ARS Southern Regional Research Center in New Orleans found that charring poultry waste (burning it in an oxygen-free environment) produces a material with qualities ideal for absorbing pollutants. The end product has both a significant surface area and sponge-like qualities.

In the United States alone 160 billion kg (350 billion Ib) of manure is produced each year by food animals, making its disposal and management a serious issue. Lima and Marshall began their research to find a way to reduce the total amount of animal waste and discover new uses for it. Their studies, however, led them to discover that charred poultry waste is a pollutant magnet that can absorb toxins, such as heavy metals, from wastewater.

Another benefit to using charred manure as a filter is that it requires less energy to produce than activated carbons, the current standard material for filtering pollutants from wastewater.

The ARS scientists think the burned poultry waste material can be used in a variety of waste treatment scenarios and have produced pellets, granules, and powders made from the char to accommodate different filtering structures, from water tanks to columns.

For more information, send e-mail to Lima at imlima@srrc.ars.usda.gov or to Marshall at marshall@srrc.ars. usda.gov.

Copyright Water Environment Federation Mar 2006