Browsing by Subject "Manure"
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Item A water quality assessment of the import of turfgrass sod grown with composted dairy manure into a suburban watershed(Texas A&M University, 2005-02-17) Richards, Chad EdwardConcentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have caused water quality concerns in many rural watersheds, sometimes forcing the State of Texas to conduct Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) assessments of stream nutrients such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). One suggested Best Management Practice (BMP) is the export of phosphorus (P) through turfgrass sod produced with composted dairy manure from an impaired rural watershed to an urban watershed. The manure-grown sod releases P slowly and would not require additional P fertilizer for up to 20 years in the receiving watershed. This would eliminate P application to the sod and improve the water quality of urban streams. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to model a typical suburban watershed that would receive the transplanted sod. The objective of the modeling was to determine the water quality changes due to the import of sod transplanted from turf fields and grown with composted dairy manure. The SWAT model was calibrated to simulate historical flow and sediment and nutrient loading to Mary's Creek. The total P stream loading to Mary's Creek was lower when manure-grown sod was imported instead of commercial sod grown with inorganic fertilizers. Yet, flow, sediment yield, and total N yield increased equally for both cases at the watershed outlet. The SWAT simulations indicate that a turfgrass BMP can be used effectively to import manure P into an urban watershed and reduce in-stream P levels when compared to sod grown with inorganic fertilizers.Item Evaluation of selected new technologies for animal waste pollution control(Texas A&M University, 2006-10-30) Lazenby, Lynn AnneIn 1998, two upper North Bosque River segments were designated as impaired due to the nonpoint source (NPS) pollution of phosphorus (P) to these segments in the watershed. As a result, two Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) were applied which called for the reduction of annual loading and annual average soluble reactive P (Sol P) concentrations by 50 %. This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of two prospective new technologies, an Electrocoagulation (EC) system, and a Geotube???? dewatering system to potentially aid the dairy farmers in meeting the goals set by the TMDLs. The EC system analyzed in this study used chemical pretreatment to coagulate and separate solids in effluent pumped from the dairy lagoon; the liquid then flowed over charged iron electrodes giving off ions that cause coagulation and precipitation of P and other metals. Overall, the performance of the system was consistently highly effective in reducing total phosphorus (TP) and Sol P, on average, reducing these constituents by 96% and 99.6% respectively from the dairy lagoon effluent. However this consistency did not hold for the rest of the analytes. In the Geotube???? dewatering system geotextile tubes were utilized to dewater dairy lagoon effluent. Results showed this system performed very well in filtering solids from the dairy lagoon effluent, removing an average of 93.5 % of the total solids between the two pumping and dewatering events of March and April. It was effective in removing nutrients and metals as well. The average percent reduction of TP and Sol P for the two events were very high at 97% and 85 % respectively.Item NOx reduction with the use of feedlot biomass as a reburn fuel(2009-05-15) Goughnour, Paul GordonCoal fired power plants produce NOx at unacceptable levels. In order to control these emissions without major modifications to the burners, additional fuel called reburn fuel is fired under rich conditions (10-30 % by heat) after the coal burners. Additional air called overfire air (about 20 % of total air) is injected in order to complete combustion. Typically reburn fuel is natural gas (NG). From previous research at TAMU, it was found that firing feedlot biomass (FB) as reburn fuel lowers the NOx emission at significant levels compared to NG. The present research was conducted to determine the optimum operating conditions for the reduction of NOx. Experiments were performed in a small scale 29.3 kW (100,000 BTU/hr) reactor using low ash partially composted FB (LA PC FB) with equivalence ratio ranging from 1 to 1.15. The results of these experiments show that NOx levels can be reduced by as much as 90% - 95 % when firing pure LA PC FB and results are almost independent of. The reburn fuel was injected with normal air and then vitiated air (12.5 % O2); further the angles of reburn injector were set normal to the main gas flow and at 45-degrees upward. For LA PC FB no significant changes were observed; but high ash PC FB revealed better reductions with 45-degrees injector and vitiated air. This new technology has the potential to reduce NOx emissions in coal fired boilers located near cattle feedlots and also relieves the cattle industry of the waste.Item Water quality improvements in the Upper North Bosque River watershed due to phosphorous export through turfgrass sod(Texas A&M University, 2005-02-17) Stewart, George RussellThe Upper North Bosque River (UNBR) watershed is under a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) mandate to reduce Phosphorus (P) due to excess nutrients in the watershed. To address these problems, Texas A&M University researchers have developed a turfgrass sod Best Management Practice (BMP) to remove excess nutrients from impaired watersheds. Turfgrass harvest of manure fertilized sod removes a thin layer of topsoil with most of the manure applied P. Plot and field scale research has demonstrated the effectiveness of turfgrass to remove manure phosphorus (P). In order to assess the impact of the turfgrass BMP on a watershed scale, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to predict water quality in the UNBR watershed. The SWAT model was modified to incorporate turfgrass harvest routines to predict manure and soil P export through turfgrass sod and soil during harvest. SWAT simulations of the BMP predicted stream load reductions of 20 to 36% for P loads in the UNBR depending on the implementation scenario, an average reduction of 31% for total N and 16.7% for sediment for all the scenarios, at the watershed outlet. The SWAT model also predicted up to 176 kg/ha P removed per sod harvest when fertilized with 100 kg manure P/ha, and 258 kg/ha of P removed per sod harvest when the manure P application rate was 200 kg/ha. In addition, depending on the implementation scenario, the turfgrass BMP could export between 262 and 784 metric tons of P out of the UNBR watershed every year. Manure fertilized turfgrass has the advantage of slow releasing nutrients from the composted dairy manure, so it would not require any additional P for life. This means reduced urban non-point source pollution and lower maintenance cost compared to regular sod. These modeling simulations complement the wealth of research that shows the effectiveness of the turfgrass BMP.