LWR – Membrane System

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LWR – Membrane System

Livestock Water Recycling

About the Company:

Livestock Water Recycling Inc. (LWR) has a passion for manure and waste management. This passion grew out of a desire to clean the world’s water and make a difference in how the world manages manure. LWR treatment technology is used at dairy, hog, and anaerobic digester operations. The patent protected system economically captures and concentrates valuable nutrients from manure, while recycling clean water. The result is reduced transport and handling costs, valuable fertilizer nutrients, a reusable water source, and a load off your mind. LWR’s goal is to aid you in effectively managing your manure so that you can focus on milk and animal production.

About the Solution:

The LWR Manure Treatment System is a patented mechanical and chemical treatment process for manure. As the manure is processed in the system, nutrients are segregated and concentrated at different stages. The resulting products of the LWR System are fertilizer solids rich in phosphorus and nitrogen, a concentrated liquid fertilizer containing ammonia and potash. Lastly, clean potable water is recycled through the membrane filtration system. The System generates zero discharge, so all parts of the manure are recycled as valuable outputs for reuse on the farm.

LWR 3637 - 44th Avenue SE Calgary, AB Canada 403-203-4972 Visit Company Website

Solution Type

  • Clean Water Membrane Systems

Vendor

  • Equipment Vendor

Product

  • Concentrated Nutrients

Problem

  • Nitrogen
  • Phosphorous
  • Storage

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Solution Strengths, Weaknesses and Critical Indicators

Clean Water Membrane Systems can be used to reduce both suspended and dissolved solids depending on location specific requirements:

  • Can produce recycled dischargeable water (RO) and marketable products when paired with other technologies
  • Always produces two streams leaving system a stream retained and a stream that permeates the membrane.
  • Membranes of various size are often used together to achieve cleaner water: microfiltration or ultrafiltration membranes first followed by reverse osmosis membranes—each allowing various sized particles through the membrane
  • Reverse Osmosis membranes are required to remove salts and achieve water suitable for discharge
  • Depending on the membrane, effective pre-treatment to remove coarse, fibrous solids as well as fine suspended solids are important to system viability and reliability
  • Membrane failure and high pressure/energy costs can be a concern
  • Proven technology for nitrogen recovery, phosphorous recovery, and storage reduction

Newtrient Comments/Opinions:

Membrane Based Nutrient Removal technologies:

  • Produces recycled water and marketable products when paired with other technologies
  • Always produce a stream leaving membrane and stream rejected by membrane
  • Membranes of various size: Microfiltration, Ultrafiltration and Reverse Osmosis—each allowing various sized particles through the membrane
  • Reverse Osmosis required to remove salts and achieve water suitable for discharge
  • Effective pre-treatment to remove coarse, fibrous solids as well as fine suspended solids are important to system viability and reliability
Membrane failure and high pressure/energy costs can be a concern LWR has multiple systems in place and is aggressively marketing to the dairy industry in the United States. In California specifically LWR has made strides to increase adoption of their technology. This system has undergone third party testing in Canada on hog operations and proved that they can achieve significant phosphorus removal but the study indicated that costs and nutrient concentration in the final product was not in line with expectations.

Newtrient has not been able to confirm the claims made by LWR on a dairy site in the United States. Newtrient is aware of LWR systems that have been installed and are no longer functioning and others that are operating less than full time, the reasons behind all these operational modes is not fully understood by Newtrient at this time. Newtrient has reservations with this technology due to our lack of insight into the actual on-farm performance and value proposition. Newtrient has and will continue to reach out to LWR to get cost, performance and operating data on the system.

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