Solution for the recovery of agro-livestock waste (slurry) in fertilizers

A Spanish company specialised in microalgae technology has developed a technological solution to recover waste from the agro-livestock industry (slurry). The result is liquid fertilizer rich in free amino acids from slurry and microalgae. The slurry is a waste compound consisting of water and animal excrement. It is a mixture of farm animal excrement combined with other discharges (such as washing water, food scraps or straw). There is evidence that the slurry from the massive production of livestock, birds or fish in farms or fish farms leads to contamination by eutrophication of surface waters or aquifers, soil contamination, bad odours and the emission of greenhouse gases. In addition, there is also the cost of transporting slurry to places suitable for dumping. Therefore, there is a problem in the state of the art regarding the production of biostimulant fertilizers that also help to manage animal manure. Procedures are necessary to reduce the amount of slurry generated and to also eliminate the odours generated during its application in the field. The current invention (patent in progress) solves both these problems by being a circular economy project in which by-products are used to obtain a commercial product. The technology consists of obtaining a biostimulant from the enzymatic hydrolysis of the biomass of the microalgae and filtered liquid slurry from farm animals (pigs, horses, etc). The resulting liquid fertilizer has been field-tested on lettuce and tomato crops with excellent results. The Spanish SME would like to reach license agreements with companies in the agro-livestock sector or waste treatment sector that could implement the technology in their portfolio.