CURRENT STATUS ON ALTERNATIVE WASTE

MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGIES IN NORTH CAROLINA:

NC ATTORNEY GENERAL AGREEMENTS  – A PROGRESS REPORT

 

C.M. (Mike) Williams

Animal and Poultry Waste Management Center

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

North Carolina State University

Box 7608, Raleigh, NC 27695-7608

 

Mike_Williams@ncsu.edu

www.cals.ncsu.edu/waste_mgt/

 

Background

The Attorney General of North Carolina entered into Agreements in July and September 2000 with Smithfield Foods and its subsidiaries (Smithfield Foods), and Premium Standard Farms (PSF), respectively, to develop “Environmentally Superior Technologies” (EST) for implementation onto farms located in North Carolina that are owned by these companies.[1]  In March 2002, the Attorney General also entered into an Agreement with Frontline Farmers in which its membership agreed to work cooperatively with the Attorney General and North Carolina State University (NCSU) to develop and implement EST. [2]  The Smithfield Foods Agreement provides $15 million and the NC Attorney General allocated $2.3 million from the PSF Agreement for a total of $17.3 million for the EST identification and development initiative.

 

Environmentally Superior Technologies

The Agreements define EST as “any technology, or combination of technologies that (1) is permittable by the appropriate governmental authority; (2) is determined to be technically, operationally, and economically feasible for an identified category or categories of farms as described in the Agreements and (3) meets the following performance standards: 1. Eliminate the discharge of animal waste to surface waters and groundwater through direct discharge, seepage, or runoff; 2. Substantially eliminate atmospheric emissions of ammonia; 3. Substantially eliminate the emission of odor that is detectable beyond the boundaries of the parcel or tract of land on which the swine farm is located; 4. Substantially eliminate the release of disease-transmitting vectors and airborne pathogens; and 5. Substantially eliminate nutrient and heavy metal contamination of soil and groundwater.”

 

Candidate EST

Selection of EST candidates to undergo performance verification and economic analysis involved a request for proposals that was issued nationwide to research institutions and industry.  Selections were based on terms and conditions of the Agreements and competitive review (outside ad hoc review) as well as review by an Advisory Panel appointed per the Agreements and comprised of individuals that represent government, environmental and community interests, the companies (Smithfield, PSF and Frontline Farmers) and individuals with expertise in animal waste management, environmental science and public health, economics and business management. Collectively, this process yielded the following EST candidates:

 

1.      In-ground ambient temperature anaerobic digester / energy recovery / greenhouse vegetable production system,

2.      High temperature thermophilic anaerobic digester (TAnD) energy recovery system,

3.      Solids separation / constructed wetlands system,

4.      Sequencing batch reactor (SBR) system,

5.      Upflow biofiltration system,

6.      Solids separation / nitrification-denitrification / soluble phosphorus removal /solids processing system,

7.      Belt manure removal and gasification system to thermally convert dry manure to a combustible gas stream for liquid fuel recovery,

8.      Ultrasonic plasma resonator system,

9.      Manure solids conversion to insect biomass (black soldier fly larvae) for value-added processing into animal feed protein meal and oil system,

10.  Solids separation / reciprocating water technology system,

11.  Micro-turbine co-generation system for energy recovery,

12.  Belt system for manure removal,

13.  High-rate second generation totally enclosed Bion system for manure slurry treatment and biosolids recovery,

14.  Combined in-ground ambient digester with permeable cover / aerobic blanket - BioKinetic aeration process for nitrification-denitrification / in-ground mesophilic anaerobic digester system (this project represents 3 farm sites),

15.  Dewatering / drying / desalinization system,

16.  Solids separation / gasification for energy and ash recovery centralized system (this project represents 3 farm sites),

17.  High solids high temperature anaerobic digester system, and

18.  Solids separation / mesophilic anaerobic digestion / membrane filtration – reverse osmosis system.

 

EST Determination

            Performance verification and economic feasibility analysis for candidate EST located on commercial farm sites involves a 15-step systematic process: 1) EST candidate selection through a pre-proposal and subsequent full proposal competitive review process, 2) selection of appropriate commercial farm or university research site for the technology study, 3) execution of farm owner agreement, 4) execution of technology design agreement, 5) development of technology design documents, 6) submittal, review and approval of design documents by NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR) for permitting purposes, 7) execution of technology construction agreement, 8) on-site construction, 9) execution of agreements for technology operation and post-evaluation decommission (if necessary), 10) construction closure approval, 11) establishment of functional operation of technology (e.g. steady state waste treatment conditions), 12) procurement of environmental performance data and economic feasibility data by third party research teams, 13) analysis of data and results reporting to the Advisory Panel, Designee, and public, 14) input and review process by the advisory panels, and 15) EST technology determinations per terms and conditions of Agreements.

 

Progress to Date

            Currently candidate EST nos. (as referenced above) 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, and 17 are in various stages of operation and performance verification.  Nos. 2, 4, 11, 13, 14, 16, and 18 are in various stages of design and/or permitting and/or construction.  Candidate EST no. 8 (a portable unit process technology) is under fabrication in Germany and will be shipped to North Carolina as soon as possible; EST no. 15 (also a portable unit process) is under development out-of-state and a decision is pending regarding the location of the performance evaluation.

            The 15-step process described above is grouped into 3 categories – 1) “on site” construction, 2) “on campus” technology development and objective environmental/economic performance verification, and 3) Advisory Panel review and technology determination reporting by the Designee named in the Agreements. A full service civil, agricultural, and environmental consulting engineering firm was retained in Year 1 of this initiative to provide project technical management assistance for the construction and permitting processes associated with all “on site” activities (items 2-10 in the 15-step process).  Also during Year 1, request for proposals were issued for the “on campus” activities.  Responses were subjected to outside ad hoc review and Advisory Panel review.  Subsequently, successful project teams were identified and awarded grants/contracts for this scope of work.  These teams are comprised of faculty and staff from NCSU and also include faculty from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), Duke University, University of Georgia (UGA), and professionals from Research Triangle Institute (RTI), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), United States Air Force Combat Climatology Center, MCNC, and NCDENR.  

            Work in progress detail is provided on the college’s waste management program web site. [3]