In 2021 Elentec Ltd with Harper Adams University and Merigan Ltd were awarded funding from DEFRA (Department of Food and Rural Affairs) in partnership with Innovate UK to test the feasibility of their dewatering technology to recover phosphate from dairy cow slurry.
The treatment process utilises electrocoagulation to fractionate slurry nutrients. The project, worth almost £250,000 over its 18-month time-span, was based on the Harper Adams University 400 cow commercial dairy farm. A carbon-rich solids fraction, a phosphorous-rich sludge and a high nitrogen reduced phosphorous fraction were produced. Consistently, 95-98% of the phosphorous was extracted. In nutrient balanced pot trials with the phosphorous-containing fraction significantly outperformed artificial fertiliser for both crop root mass and crude protein yields.
