Liquid purification or separation – Processes – Treatment by living organism
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-30
2001-03-27
Barry, Chester T. (Department: 1724)
Liquid purification or separation
Processes
Treatment by living organism
C210S615000, C210S620000, C210S803000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06207057
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a method and apparatus for processing solid waste such as created during the operation of a hog farm.
2. Description of the Prior Art and Objectives of the Invention
Hog farms are especially prevalent in about a dozen states, one being North Carolina which ranks number two in the nation and raises about 17 million hogs annually. A typical hog farm creates many tons of solid waste daily. For example, in a farm with 3,000 hogs, it is to be expected that the hogs will generate 6.3 tons a day of solid waste and currently that waste is being disposed of through dumping into lagoons and after a certain amount of sedimentation, pumping the surface water up onto farm acreage. This is an archaic way of disposing of hog waste and one that damages the environment by contaminating the ground water. It is becoming so much of an issue that most states have passed moratoriums preventing any new production hog farms and are threatening to shut down existing farms if a solution to the problem is not found.
Another environmental concern is the prevalence of waste tires which have become a problem to our society as the United States public uses approximately 250 million tires a year and has stockpiled, legally and illegally throughout the nation, approximately 6 billion tires. Tires are currently banned from landfills because they do not decompose and our country is desperately searching for environmentally friendly uses for waste tires. Currently tire are shred to make tire derived fuel (TDF), septic tank drain field use, daily landfill cover, crumb rubber and construction materials such as EcoBlocks.
With the above concerns in mind, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a method of efficiently processing solid waste collected from farms, specifically hog farms.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a disposal site for used tires as an alternative to land fill disposal.
It is still a further objective of the present invention to provide an apparatus which helps facilitate the processing of solid animal waste.
It is yet a further objective of the present invention to provide a method of processing solid waste using EcoBlocks made from waste tires which have been determined by the States of Virginia and North Carolina to be construction materials having economic value.
These and other objectives and advantages will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to the following detailed description and accompanying drawing.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The process herein separates the solids from waste water when the hog barns are flushed, recovering approximately 70% of the solids in the initial phase of the process. The solids are then dried and sold for poultry feed or fertilizer, being high in nutrients. The balance of the suspended solids are ultimately removed in the holding ponds and the recycled water is not a contaminate as the water pumped from the current lagoon systems. The processed water is recycled and used to flush hog barns thereby reducing the pollutants and the odor. Any excess water can be pumped on the fields for irrigation purposes because it is nutrient rich. It is not a contaminate like the waste water that is currently pumped on the fields by permit from the lagoons.
Hog waste is conventionally collected using hog barns having slitted concrete floors about three feet above lower concrete floors at about ground level. Hogs live their entire life cycle in pens on the slitted floor and their waste is pushed by the shuffling of their feet through the slits onto the lower concrete floor. Once a week the contents in this lower floor area is flushed into a lagoon that can contaminate ground water and produce noxious odors.
The aforedescribed objectives of the invention are realized by depositing the waste upon flushing, first into a separator. The separator is approximately 11 feet wide, three feet deep and 200 feet long (3.3 m×1 m×60 m) and is positioned at an angle so that the bottom end of the separator is approximately 3.5 feet (1.2 m) lower than the top end. With use of adjustable baffles and a screen that covers the lower end, the baffles catch a majority of the solid waste while allowing the liquid to drain to reactor cells (described below). When the separator is filled with thirty days of flushings from the barns, the separator is taken out of use and the contents allowed to drain completely dry. The dry waste, which is high in protein and nutrients is mechanically removed from the separator with a front end loader or conventional back hoe and placed on a concrete apron storage area for final air drying. In the meantime, waste accumulated from the barns is routed to a second separator, which may be positioned next to or is part of the same physical structure as the first separator. It is expected that the reactor cell which receives liquid from the separator is sized to fill to capacity in approximately six months.
In the preferred embodiment, two reactor cells are utilized along with one polishing cell; each reactor cell being slightly larger than one acre and lined with a conventional non-porous polymeric liner which prevents water from escaping into the water table. About thirteen inches (13.02 cm) of dirt is placed over the polymeric liner. Atop the dirt are placed approximately 3,500 EcoBlocks. Each EcoBlock is essentially a bale of approximately 110 automobile tires. These EcoBlocks provide vast surface area on which conventional biological reactions may occur. Test results have shown that these EcoBlocks can in fact be classified as a fixed medium reactor—i.e. the surface area provides a stable environment for the generation of bacteria to break down the solid waste. Other suitable material can and from time to time will be substituted for EcoBlocks to achieve the necessary biological reaction. This is in contrast to conventional hog lagoons, which are floating medium reactors and do not generate their own supplies of bacteria in self-sustaining amounts.
Also, in the preferred embodiment, water in the reactor cells is approximately thirteen feet (4 m) deep; which is about four feet (1.3 m) above the top of the EcoBlocks. Excess water drains from the first two reactor cells to the polishing cell, which is only approximately 0.75 acre in area. Water from the polishing cell may then be used to flush the barns and any excess water can be used by the farmer to fertilize and water pastures or crops.
It should be understood that the separator liquids are pumped to the reactor cells, and as the reactor cells overflow, gravity drain to the polishing cell. Conventional pumps may be used where needed in the event gravity draining is not effective due to terrain contours or the like. Additionally, pumps may be used to move water from the polishing cell to the barn for flushing purposes. Furthermore, most hog farms have a plurality of barns, and separators are connected to all barns.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3223070 (1965-12-01), Gribble
patent: 3973043 (1976-08-01), Lynn
patent: 4208279 (1980-06-01), Varani
patent: 5061369 (1991-10-01), Romeroe et al.
patent: 5078882 (1992-01-01), Northrup
patent: 5470476 (1995-11-01), Taboga
patent: 5569376 (1996-10-01), Graves
patent: 5817241 (1998-10-01), Brayboy
patent: 5897785 (1999-04-01), Billings
patent: 5980738 (1999-11-01), Heitcamp
Burk, K., “Hubcaps, Tires and Wheels: Recycling From The Ground Up,” http://www.partslocator.com/services/sprofile/hubcap.htm, Mar. 1997 (downloaded Aug. 15, 2000).*
http://www.pollutionengineering.com/archives/1997/pol1015.97/16idea.htm downloaded Aug. 15, 2000.*
http://www.zeller-int.com/bboard/ecoblock-01.htm downloaded Aug. 15, 2000.
Barry Chester T.
Tire Recyclers, Inc.
LandOfFree
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