Sinn Féin spokesperson for agriculture in Northern Ireland, MLA Declan McAleer, believes that progress has been made in developing systems capable of extracting phosphorus from slurries.
This development is linked to the rolling out of the Sustainable Utilisation of Livestock Slurry programme, introduced by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) last year.
The initiative has been co-funded by Stormont’s Department for the Economy under the auspices of Northern Ireland’s Strategic Investment Board (SIB).
The new programme has been designed to take forward the development of projects, which act to reduce surplus phosphorus within production agriculture and ensure efficient recycling of organic nutrients.
Up to £12 million of funding is to be provided to assist three suppliers to develop demonstration plants for a bio-circular economy.
Declan McAleer told Agriland: “The new project will make a significant reduction on the current levels of excess phosphorus by reducing the excess nutrient from slurry by at least 1,000t per year by the end of year three.
“This will provide an on-farm solution and is about the separation of slurry on-farm. Similar to a milk run, someone will go around farms with a mobile unit separating slurry and take away the solids to an anaerobic digestion plant.
“The focus is on cattle and pig farmers.”
Phosphorus from slurries
According to McAleer the development of new phosphorous extraction technologies will deliver numerous benefits, on-farm, across Northern Ireland.
“They will allow farmers to put out slurry when best use can be made of the soil nutrient rather than spreading it when they have to,” he explained.
“In addition, these new technologies will free up space in tanks while also linking-in with the soil nutrient health scheme.
“This is an important government intervention and deals with the problems the north currently faced regarding excess phosphorus. It this will also form part of the Lough Neagh Action Plan.”
The suppliers selected for the Sustainable Utilisation of Livestock Slurry programme were required to meet a number of core objectives.
These include the development of practical and economic models where livestock slurry can be separated, with minimal nitrogen and methane losses, to produce feedstock for renewable energy, in a bio-secure manner.
This feedstock can then be used for biogas or biomethane production via anaerobic digestion (AD) to decarbonise the electricity and gas networks in Northern Ireland.
Research was also focused on technologies to extract nutrients from the process to produce replacements for chemical fertilisers or to produce compost for use across a number of markets.
