removal characteristics of nitrogen and phosphorus and their land application rates during a multi-level treatment process for manure and waste water:an example from intensive swine farm in water network region of southern jiangsu province, china

The actual removal rates of nitrogen and phosphorus in animal manure and waste water during multi-level treatment process remain vague for large-scale farms. This limits its land application in water network regions of China. The aims of this study were:(1) to verify the removal characteristics of total nitrogen(TN) and phosphorus(TP) during a multi-level treatment process for swine manure and waste water, and(2) to calculate its land carrying capacity. An intensive swine farm in Southern Jiangsu, which possessed a typical manure and waste water treatment plant with two anaerobic digesters, three natural sediment ponds, and one aquatic plant ponds, was chosen to monitor for the four seasons during a whole year. The results showed that total productions of manure and urine were 4 086.9 t and 10 995.8 t, respectively, in 2016. The collection rate of manure was around 90.5%. The available TN and TP were 183.12 t and 148.97 t, respectively, for land application. The removal rates of TN and TP were less than 25.3% and 57.2% respectively, after secondary anaerobic digestion. The residual TN and TP in the digestates could be removed more than 80% by oxygen ponds treatments. Then the effluent was processed by aquatic plants, and the removal rates for TN and TP were more than 95%, which guaranteed the effluent to be up to the discharge standard. The multi-level processing technology could improve the land carrying capacity and reduce the manure and waste water treatment costs for the intensive animal farms, which were suitable for very intensive, economically developed and land resource limited regions.