Innovations

MagneGas sterilizes livestock manure

A Florida-based company has commercialized a process for sterilizing livestock manure.

MagneGas vice president of equipment sales Jim Cohen says the patented technology flows liquid waste through an electric arc system, is EPA-compliant and has been tested on a commercial hog farm in Indiana.

“In some of the harsher conditions through the winter, we were able to take manures and prove that we could kill 100 percent of the bacteria and fecal coliform.”

The MagneGas machine also reduces but does not remove nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium in the manure.

Cohen tells Brownfield the end-product has the potential to be immediately land applied with little to no regulation.

“One of the big concerns from (people) in most areas that we visited…the reason they’re not being allowed to expand is because they have too much nitrogen and phosphorous.”

Cohen says one of the goals is to demonstrate the MagneGas technology eliminates the need for anaerobic livestock waste lagoons.