Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology – Micro-organism – tissue cell culture or enzyme using process... – Preparing oxygen-containing organic compound
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-19
2002-03-12
Naff, David M. (Department: 1651)
Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology
Micro-organism, tissue cell culture or enzyme using process...
Preparing oxygen-containing organic compound
C435S166000, C426S624000, C426S807000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06355456
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel integrated process for the environmentally benign use of grains and renewable materials to produce “clean beef” (or milk), fuel ethanol for motor fuel purposes, and bio-gas/bio-fertilizer from animal wastes.
2. Background of the Prior Art
American agriculture in general, and the livestock feeding industry in particular, face increasing pressures which pose challenges to traditional methods of doing business, and offer opportunities to those with improved methods. Trends in the marketplace have created a demand for “clean beef” (beef which is hormone-, antibiotics-, and
E.coli
- free). Environmental authorities at both the national and local levels are imposing requirements on large animal feeding operations to ensure that odor and environmental contamination are substantially reduced from current levels. Cost effective methods of converting animal wastes into marketable fuels and products are needed. These methods and products should be generally “sustainable” (e.g., renewable) and environmentally friendly.
In conventional practice, cattle are normally fed 22 pounds of dry matter equivalent per day with as much as a 50% moisture content for a total feed weight of approximately 44 pounds per day. The moisture content represents a portion of the animal's total daily water intake. Cattle on average convert 6.5 pounds of feed into one pound of body weight gain. If the animal gains 3.5 pounds of weight per day and requires 6.5 pounds of feed per pound of gain, it must consume 22.75 pounds of dry matter feed per day. This diet not only allows for weight gain but provides the energy to sustain the animal in good health. Approximately 70% of the animal's dry matter feed ration is digestible. The non-digestible and water portions are passed as manure and urine which in conventional practice are typically dumped onto the ground. The pens are then occasionally cleaned by scraping the manure and dirt mixture into wind row piles where it sun-dries. The mixture is eventually field applied, sold as fertilizer or disposed of in some fashion. Due to growing environmental concerns, however, manure management is rapidly becoming one of the most critical functions in commercial feeding operations.
Modern feedyards are designed to catch the water runoff from cattle pens in special drain basins or pits which are often aerated to introduce more oxygen into them. The water will evaporate as new runoff continuously refills the pits. They are designed to normally handle up to a 25-year rain runoff However, in just the last 25 years, there have been not only 25-year rains but a 50, 100 and even a 300-year rain in the Midwest. These heavy rains can, and do, overwhelm the feedyards' ability to manage the pen drainage systems.
Since the early 1990's, many states and the federal government have begun to review the public policies regulating commercial cattle feeding. Many complaints have been received from environmentalists, naturalists, fishermen and neighbors regarding the untreated contamination resulting from the feedyards. The sheer volume of cattle waste (12 times that of one adult human per day) is cause for considerable concern. Whereas human waste is treated in sewage disposal plants, septic tanks or by other approved methods, conventionally, cattle waste is not so treated.
The United States has a population of approximately 275 million people and raises approximately 100 million cattle, of which over 32 million are brought together in confined commercial feedlots. If each adult animal produces 12 times as much waste as an adult human being, the United States is producing the animal waste-equivalent of a nation of 385 million people, just in feedyards.
It is these feedyard cattle that are posing the greatest threat to the environment. Cattle on farms and ranches average approximately one animal for each 12 acres or about one animal per 500,000 square feet, whereas, in a confined feedyard operation, one animal has an average of 250 square feet. This animal density concentrates the manure into very small areas and local ecosystems are thereby jeopardized.
Commercial cattle feeding (feedyards larger than 1,000 animal units) are the point source for numerous real and perceived environmental problems: water contamination, airborne particulates, objectionable odors, fly and insect infestations, nitrogen and phosphorus buildup in the soil and major fish kills in rivers and streams. The troublesome greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of methane is another major environmental problem. Worldwide, cattle are the single largest animal source of methane release into the environment (methane is 22 times more potent than CO
2
as a greenhouse gas).
Most states require freshly applied raw animal manure to be incorporated into the soil at a depth of at least nine inches, and within 12 hours of manure application. This is the most economic use of feedyard manure today. Feedyards that recover manure but do not keep it separated and free from dirt contamination, will normally sell the pen scrapings in a dry form. However, this method is more labor intensive and requires additional equipment and real estate for wind row drying. At this point, the waste byproduct can pollute the surrounding environment if washed away during wet periods and the opportunity for odor and insect problems increases.
Another major environmental concern caused by commercial cattle feeding is the build-up of nitrogen and phosphorus in the soil under and around feedyards where manure is applied or disposed of. This build-up comes from the long-term consumption, and then concentration, of feed grain in the relatively small area encompassed by a feedlot. A typical feedyard will consume approximately 20 pounds of corn per animal per day. In a 25,000 head feedyard that is full with year-round operation, this amounts to approximately 3,250,000 bushels of corn per year.
In the corn belt of the upper Midwest each acre of corn receives approximately 135 pounds of nitrogen per acre and will yield approximately 130 bushels of corn per acre. When the mature corn is harvested only the seed is saved and the plant is reincorporated into the soil for nutritional enrichment. The 130 bushels of seed corn taken from the acre contain most of the nitrogen and phosphorus which is then transported to the cattle feedyard for feed rations. If a typical 25,000 head location utilizes 3.25 million bushels per year and the average production is 130 bushels per acre, the feedyard will require all of the output from 25,000 acres of corn.
If a conventional 25,000 head feedyard is built on approximately 250 acres of land, this means the nitrogen and phosphorus is taken from 25,000 acres of corn and ends up on 250 acres of feedlot—a concentration of 100-fold. During the feeding cycle, cattle use approximately one-half of the nitrogen in the corn for body growth by converting it to protein. Thus, this portion of the nitrogen leaves the feedyard as meat. The remaining 50% of nitrogen and 100% of the phosphorus is left behind. The manure management of the feedyard must then move these compounds back to local farm fields as replacement fertilizer needed for next year's corn crop.
If the feedyard does not collect and remove these compounds from the land it will end up in the environment. The nitrogen and phosphorous can remain in the land under the feedyard and be trapped there until the end of the feedyard's life cycle. Or, they can be transported off site via water runoff, airborne particulates, manure removal or disposal, etc. The principal environmental concern is that heavy buildup of nitrogen and phosphorus can enter the water system, as in the widely reported instances of runoff from Midwestern states like Iowa and Illinois into the Mississippi River, and ultimate deposit in heavy concentrations in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere, causing immense “dead zones” which cause the death of shrimp and other fish due to oxygen depletion.
While anaerobic digestion
Hallberg David E.
Schlesinger Victor W.
Dakota Ag Energy, Inc.
Lorusso & Loud
Meller Mike
Naff David M.
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