Chemistry: fertilizers – Processes and products – Organic material-containing
Reexamination Certificate
2002-09-06
2004-01-27
Silverman, Stanley G. (Department: 1754)
Chemistry: fertilizers
Processes and products
Organic material-containing
C071S012000, C071S014000, C071S015000, C071S021000, C071S023000, C071S025000, C071S028000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06682578
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the production of commercial fertilizers by treating agricultural and industrial wastes. More specifically, the present invention relates to methods for producing organic-based, slow release fertilizers by processing wastes such as organic-based and industrial wastes.
2. The Relevant Technology
Feedlots, animal barns, agroindustrial plants, municipal sewage, and farms that keep large numbers of animals are sources of enormous quantities of organic waste. The expression “organic waste source” will hereinafter refer to any of these sources of organic waste or to any source that similarly produces organic waste, although perhaps in different quantities or by different activities.
The disposal of untreated organic waste causes serious pollution problems which include those due to the waste's high content of chemically oxidizable components (expressed as COD, or chemical oxygen demand) and biochemically decomposable components (expressed as BOD, or biochemical oxygen demand). When these pollutants reach bodies of water, either because they leach from disposal sites or as a consequence of being directly released or transported into water bodies, they deoxygenate the receiving waters and impair the receiving waters' capability to support aquatic life.
Acridity and high pathogen content add to the COD and BOD problems of untreated waste disposal. Acrid gases released into the atmosphere are not only unpleasant but they can also contribute to acid deposition, global greenhouse effects, and ozone depletion.
According to background material provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “animal waste, if not managed properly, can run off farms and pollute nearby water bodies. Agricultural run off, rich in nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous has been linked to dangerous toxic microorganisms such as
Pfisteria piscicida
. Pfisteria is widely believed to be responsible for major fish kills and disease events in several mid-Atlantic states and may pose a risk to human health.” Draft Strategy for Animal Feeding Operations, EPA Memorandum, Mar. 4, 1998. See also EPA To Better Protect Public Health and The Environment From Animal Feeding Operations, EPA release of Mar. 5, 1998. In particular, the relationship between swine production and waste management problems has been reported in the Task Force Report No. 124, Council for Agricultural Science and Technology,
Waste Management and Utilization in Food Production and Processing
, Oct. 1995, pp. 42-54, 110-121.
Notwithstanding the problems referred to above and other detrimental effects of the disposal of untreated organic waste, organic waste has nutritional value for plants. Nevertheless, untreated organic waste cannot be used directly as fertilizer because of the afore-mentioned problems. The alternative use of synthetic fertilizers is often adopted for increasing crop yield, but this solution carries at least two undesirable implications. First, a strategy that relies only on the use of synthetic fertilizers neglects the problem of organic waste disposal. Second, the manufacture of synthetic fertilizers frequently requires consumption of considerable amounts of energy and possibly expensive synthesis materials, sometimes involves polluting subprocesses, and may produce additional waste whose safe disposal is often expensive. In addition, the fast release of most synthetic fertilizers causes leaching, which in turn leads to wasted fertilizer and the ensuing pollution problems when the leached fertilizer accumulates in canals and other bodies of water.
The problems inherent to organic waste production and subsequent treatment require economical processes which avoid the afore-mentioned environmental problems. The efficiency of these processes is considerably enhanced when, in addition to providing a practical disposal of organic waste, the processes convert the organic waste into a useful product, such as commercial fertilizer, preferably a slow-release fertilizer. This conversion requires the recovery of the nitrogenous products in the waste and their conversion into a fertilizer that can slowly release nitrogen in a form that plants can absorb. Because of the diversity of variables that determine the economic, chemical, and environmental aspects of this conversion problem, a variety of attempts to treat organic waste have been undertaken. The patents and other works referred to hereinbelow relate to methods that address aspects of the problem of converting organic waste into useful fertilizer.
Methods for producing fertilizer have been disclosed in references that include the following patents and articles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,593,099 describes a method for producing fertilizer from liquid manure or from sludge that includes mixing the manure or sludge with harvest leftovers and then grinding the mixture to a particle size such that the particles adsorb and absorb the liquid substance fully. An apparatus for producing the solid fertilizer is also disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,528 describes a pathogenic waste treatment process to produce a useful product such as an amendment to agricultural land. In the process, waste is combined with an acid and a base which react exothermically to thermally pasteurize the waste and add mineral value to the product. Materials such as fly ash agglomerate the product, and after grinding, the particles can aerate the soil. This patent is a division of U.S. Pat. No. 5,422,015 that also discloses a pathogenic waste treatment. The use of alkaline fly ash as an amendment for swine manure has been studied by M. Vincini, F. Carini, and S. Silva,
Use of Alkaline Fly Ash as an Amendment for Swine Manure, Bioresource Technology
, Vol. 49 (1994), pp. 213-22.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,443,613 describes a method for producing suspension fertilizer by first preparing an aqueous initial suspension of the organic material and transforming it into colloidal form. An ammoniacal compound, such as anhydrous or aqueous ammonia, and supplemental compound or compounds for providing the other desired inorganic plant nutrients are added to and admixed with the acidified suspension to produce a finished suspension fertilizer having the desired analysis.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,411,568 describes a method for preparing granular slow release nitrogen fertilizer from nitrogenous organic wastes by coreacting particulate dry conditioned nitrogenous organic waste and reactive ureaformaldehyde oligomer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,393,317 describes a method and apparatus for making organic based fertilizer, the method including mixing organic material with phosphate, potash, or other inorganics and water if necessary. Acid and ammonia are also added to the mixture, and quantities of the various ingredients are adjusted to provide a fertilizer that has a desired percentage of the major fertilizer elements for a specific crop.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,378,257 describes a process for organic fertilizer production that comprises mixing a batch of the waste matter with nitric acid, crushing the waste water mixed with nitric acid to make sludge, adding quicklime to the sludged waste matter, thereby neutralizing the waste water, and drying the neutralized waste matter. An apparatus for the production thereof is also disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,559 discloses a method for processing manure by adding an organic carrier liquid to the manure, concentrating the mixture of manure and carrier liquid, condensing the formed vapor, anaerobically treating the condensate, and aerobically treating the effluent from the anaerobic treatment.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,021,247, 5,021,077, and 4,997,469 disclose methods for preparing high integrity natural nitrogenous granules for agriculture by processes that include the heating of natural nitrogenous materials under alkaline conditions until the materials develop adhesive properties.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,710,300 describes a method for processing of organic materials containing nitrogen compounds, where the organic material undergoes an anaero
Crystal Peak Technologies, LLC
Medina Maribel
Silverman Stanley G.
Workman Nydegger
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