Clean Water and Renewable Energy from Beet Processing Wastewater and Manure

Minnesota ranks #2 in hog production and #1 in sugar beet production in the U.S., generating about 11 million tons of pig manure and over one million tons of sugar processing wastes annually. Presently there are not cost-effective methods available to deal with these waste streams other than land application, which usually results in nutrient runoff into ground and surface water resources. Better treatment of these waste streams is necessary, but treatment alone is not only expensive but usually fails to capture resource values contained within these waste streams that could be put to other uses. Additionally, these two waste streams together contain complimentary nutrients needed for biological processes such as fermentation and anaerobic digestion. Researchers at the University of Minnesota Southern Research and Outreach Center are using this appropriation to develop, test, and evaluate technologies that utilize these two different agricultural waste streams containing complementary nutrients to produce value-added byproducts in the forms of bioenergy and fertilizer while reducing the negative impact of both waste streams on water quality.