Principle Mineral Recovery Plant Reuse of valuable components in manure: Large scale demonstration plant: Mineral Valley Achterhoek (Beltrum) Oscar Schoumans (Alterra Wageningen UR), Arjan Prinsen (Groot-Zevert Vergisting BV), Hans Klein Willink (Wilba techniek BV) Background Current situation Manure production 173 Mio kg P2O5 --- Applied on own farm 79 Mio kg P2O5 --- On manure market 94 Mio kg P2O5 --- To crop farms 48 Mio kg P2O5 --- Surplus (mainly exported; D, F, etc) 46 Mio kg P2O5 Europe need to recover and recycle the valuable minerals available in manure to overcome economic, industrial, social and environmental problems. Phosphate is finite critical and irreplaceable / non-renewable resource for our food production and Europe has no significant phosphate rock mines. Furthermore, reduction of the costs of manure disposal is needed, because the negative influence on the farmer’s income and investment options are substantial. Objective This innovative business project proposes, tests and demonstrates a cascade of recovery techniques at large scale (> 100.000 ton manure) to valorise available components in manure. Figure 1. Manure production and manure disposal (after De Koeijer et al., 2012) Principle Mineral Recovery Plant Figure 2. Approach to recover nutrients from digestate (and manure) at a large scale demonstration plant at the digester Groot Zevert (Beltrum) Products Impact Increasing the reuse of minerals recovered from manure as secondary resource for industries and agriculture from a cradle-to-cradle perspective and reduce the import of minerals or the high costs of producing chemical fertilizers. Increasing cost efficiency of manure processing towards a positive business case. Reducing the inefficient use of minerals of manure in areas with mineral surpluses. Reducing the negative impact of excessive use of manure and minerals on the environment. Enabling the decision making process: to move into industrial scale manure processing after the successful demonstration of the whole value-chain from manure to application. Recovery of Phosphorus (P) minerals which can be used as secondary resource for industries. Recovery of Nitrogen (N) as ammonium sulphate or ammonium nitrate which are considered as acknowledged fertilizers. Organic matter with a reduced N en P content which can be applied in the nearby region (no long distance transport needed anymore). Process water from the liquid fraction with a reduced P and N content which can be applied as irrigation water or which can be additionally treated for draining purposes (sewage or surface water) Alterra Wageningen UR P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen Contact: oscar.schoumans@wur.nl T + 31 (0)317 486446, M +31 (0)6 20 53 42 09 www.WageningenUR.nl