A team of researchers at China’s Nanjing Agriculture University (NAU) have developed a novel technique for turning carcasses of diseased livestock and effluent waste into a safe organic fertilizer, according to a recent announcement made by Professor Shen Qirong.
Shen and a team of researchers and graduate students have been working on developing approaches to remediate slaughterhouse waste since 2010, according to a report provided by Smart Agriculture Analytics. The technique, which has been perfected for poultry waste, is aimed at addressing the risk of the spread of disease and environmental pollution caused by current livestock waste processing methods that include deep burial, chemical-based processing, burning, and composting. NAU experts state that all of those methods have some sort of environmental impact.
According to Shen, the breakthrough means that waste problems that were once costly for livestock producers can now actually be viewed as a source of income. The process can rapidly break down fats and produce an amino-acid based liquid fertilizer, Shen adds, as well as a high quality bio-organic fertilizer. It is also possible to use the fatty byproducts as a bio-fuel, the NAU researcher said.
