Hog manure lagoon sludge treatment

Abbotsford, BC – March 27th, 2019.  Hog farming is a large sector in U.S. agriculture. The National Pork Board estimated the number of hog operations in 2012 to be around 63,000 farms. So no question; this is a big market for Trident, too. Trident’s ag division has recently completed a pilot with a Trident Wave Separator on a hog farm. The farm’s objective was to de-sludge their lagoon with an efficient separation and dewatering technology. The farm also wanted to be able to reuse what’s left from their hog manure as soil enhancement or fertilizer feedstock.

This video shows the on-farm pilot setup. Although we don’t have all reports and data back yet, the first results are impressive. Especially when considering that the Wave Separator is a low impact, low horsepower separation system that doesn’t use a lot of mechanical pressure for the dewatering process.

How to de-sludge a hog manure lagoon

The lagoon sludge is pumped from the dredging barge to a bar screen to remove any larger objects. In the next step the pilot operator adds polymer to initiate the fine solid separation. The flocculated material is then sent to the Wave Separator. The forward rotating discs convey the solids across the table. The free water drops into the filtrate tank below.

The influent flow rate during piloting was about 18 gpm. This particular Wave model comes with an optional pressure plate for increased dewatering performance. During the pilot our team was able to produce cake consistently in the 19-23% solids range. Even though the input solids fluctuated as the dredge moved across the lagoon, the cake output was consistently high. The photo on the right shows a sample of the filtrate. It is an impressive illustration of the high solids capture rate that the pilot was able to achieve.

If you too are looking to process your hog manure or lagoon sludge, call us at 1-800-799-3740.