Cheap electricity could recycle animal waste, recover valuable chemicals

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https://www.science.org/content/article/cheap-electricity-could-recycle-animal-waste-recover-valuable-chemicals

By ROBERT F. SERVICE, Science. 

Excerpt: Every year the world’s livestock farms generate more than 3 billion tons of animal waste, equivalent to more than 9000 Empire State Buildings. All that manure pollutes bodies of water and releases noxious fumes and greenhouse gases. But a new recycling technique could reduce those burdens while turning a profit. Researchers have shown that they can use electricity to break down organic nutrients in animal waste, all while recovering valuable chemicals. Initial projections—reported this month in Nature Sustainability—suggest that in most cases the value of these chemicals would be higher than the costs of the technique, making it profitable for farmers to pursue it. ...renewable power is expected to lower electricity costs in some rural areas to about $0.03 per kWh by 2030. ...Given how efficient the overall process is, she says, the electrochemical treatment could capture nearly 70% of the ammonia in manure and reduce farm emissions of the compound by a similar amount.... 

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