The recovery of water from slurry produced in high density livestock farming with the use of membrane processes

Huge amount of slurry produced in high-density livestock farming needs proper management and utilization methods. The integrated system of centrifugation/two-step ultrafiltration/nanofiltration was used to recover water from pig slurry. PVDF UF (100 and 50 kDa), PES UF (10 and 5 kDa) and composite hydrophilic NF membranes (0.2 kDa) were used. System efficiency was validated according to final product quality and membranes capacity. The influence of membrane fouling on their performance and properties was also investigated.The study showed that among all discussed system configurations centrifugation–UF50–UF5–NF0.2 was the most effective. Thirty-three percentage of initial crude slurry volume was obtained as the final permeate. Strong influence of membranes fouling on system capacity was observed for UF, while for NF it had an impact on membranes properties. The finally obtained product was suitable to be reused as a sanitary safe industrial water e.g. for washing of animals and farmhouses.

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► The possibility of recovery of usable water from pig slurry was studied.
► Different combinations of centrifugation, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration were applied.
► Results of preliminary studies carried out in laboratory scale were presented.
► Process capacity was established and membrane fouling was discussed.
► Membranes washing was performed and the recovery of initial capacity was established.