Empowering farmers to transform manure into valuable resources
ManuREfinery is one of several projects designed to rethink the management of livestock manure. Each year, European farms produce more than 1.4 billion tons of manure, which can lead to air, water, and soil pollution. That is why ManuREfinery was developed with the goal of transforming manure into high-value-added bio-based products, such as fertilizers and animal feed ingredients.
As part of the ManuREfinery project, these combined benefits are achieved through small-scale mobile biorefineries that transform agricultural manure into valuable products for agriculture and other sectors, bypassing conventional waste streams and reducing the environmental footprint of livestock farming. At the same time, this solution opens up new economic opportunities in rural European regions.
The implementation of ManuREfinery will lead to the creation of 7 new value chains in the livestock sector, producing 7 bio-ingredients from any type of manure (cows, pigs, chickens) thanks to its flexible and modular nature. 23 partners from 9 European countries are involved in this project for a duration of 4 years and a budget of 9.000 000 €.
Objectives
To improve manure management and NH3 emissions control, ManuREfinery has several objectives:
- Develop a comprehensive design for ManuREfinery’s recovery units, customizing each modular system to ensure reliability, flexibility, operational simplicity, and affordability of technologies and resources. The project will develop a digital twin of the biorefinery to optimize and predict its performance and assist in the scaling up and replication of technologies.
- Demonstrate and validate ManuREfinery technologies for the use of livestock effluents for animal feed and fertilizer bio-ingredients.
- Demonstrate the technical and economic viability of ManuREfinery and its environmental and socio-economic benefits. The project will define the economic requirements and operational costs of the proposed technologies, providing an overview of the necessary investment and profitability. ManuREfinery will also implement life cycle analysis tools.
- Ensure the adaptability and reproducibility of ManuREfinery through implementation strategies, engagement of key stakeholders, a roadmap for replicating the solution, and a multi-criteria decision-making tool.
- Identify market opportunities and create business models for the EU livestock sector.
- Promote and disseminate the ManuREfinery concept and its benefits to stakeholders in the livestock sector and the general public.
Projet outcomes
The core technologies for converting manure into bio-based products include gas, liquid, and solid valorization lines.
- Gas Valorization: Developing biofiltration and ammonia recovery processes to produce sodium nitrate, a valuable fertilizer ingredient, through biofiltration technology.
- Liquid Valorization: Constructing an anaerobic digestion setup for separating and treating liquid waste, capturing nitrogen and phosphorus for fertilizer production.
- Solid Valorization: Designing processes to handle solid manure waste through drying and gasification, converting it into bio-based fuels and microbial protein for feed.
- Digital Twin Integration: Building a digital twin (virtual model) of each valorization line to optimize real-time process control, efficiency, and safety through advanced data analytics and simulations.
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This project is linked to Grant Agreement No. 101157679 and is part of the European program HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-IA-01.
