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Resilience of aquatic ecosystems in farming areas: Implementing nutrient recovery systems in concentrated animal feeding operations
Citation:
Martín-Hernández, E., M. Martín, AND G. Ruiz-Mercado. Resilience of aquatic ecosystems in farming areas: Implementing nutrient recovery systems in concentrated animal feeding operations. Presented at AIChE Enterprise & Infrastructure Resilience Conference, Cincinnati, OH, August 12 - 13, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
The uncontrolled releases of nutrients to the environment, as phosphates, from anthropogenic activities such as livestock, are triggers of eutrophication and harmful algal blooms (HABs). This poster presentation describes a tool based in techno-economical models to aid decision-makers selecting the optimal nutrient recovery technology from livestock waste, creating a flexible model able to collect diverse input values which define each livestock facility operation and its economic performance, providing the most accurate solution for controlling nutrient pollution, and studying the effect of decisions made in the nutrient source on reducing the potential for harmful algal blooms. This contribution would be of relevant interest for stakeholders looking for feasible solutions to address quality of water challenges and ecological and economic impacts caused by inefficient management of anthropogenic nutrient sources and HABs.
Description:
The uncontrolled releases of nutrients to the environment, as phosphates, from anthropogenic activities such as livestock, are one of the most critical environmental issues affecting the water bodies in the United States. The presence of substantial amounts of phosphate, together with other factors as water temperature and sunlight intensity, are triggers of eutrophication and harmful algal blooms (HABs). In addition, the limited availability of oxygen in aquatic ecosystems affected by HABs is causing hypoxia, which is threatening other aquatic living forms. Additionally, HABs produce toxins, affecting human health and needing the installation of expensive water treatment systems for their removal. Several outstanding cases of eutrophication have taken place in the US in recent times, being the events occurred in Lake Erie since 1990, and the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico because of in-excess nutrients discharges collected along the Mississippi River basin particularly remarkable. Among the precursor elements that originate eutrophication, the only one possible for control and prevention is the nutrient run-off arising from anthropogenic activities. Therefore, the implementation of effective nutrient recovery technologies is essential to avoid the harmful impact of eutrophication in water bodies. Along these lines, aiming the developing of appropriate livestock manure management strategies, a tool based in techno-economical models is being developed to aid decision-makers selecting the optimal nutrient recovery technology from livestock waste, creating a flexible model able to collect diverse input values which define each livestock facility operation and its economic and environmental contexts, providing the most accurate solution for each evaluated facility.