Hog waste processing apparatus and method

A hog waste processing apparatus is comprised of standard hog barns which are fluidly connected to separators. The separators are fluidly connected to a pair of reactor cells. The reactor cells are filled with EcoBlocks to increase the surface area upon which biological reactions occur. Excess fluid from the reactor cells drains into a polishing cell which recycles the water to flush the barns. A method is also affiliated with the apparatus. The method comprises flushing the barns with water once a week to remove animal waste to the separators. Once a month the separator being used is allowed to completely dry and the solid waste is removed to a storage area for further drying and shipment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
 1. Field of the Invention
 This invention pertains to a method and apparatus for processing solid
 waste such as created during the operation of a hog farm.
 2. Description of the Prior Art and Objectives of the Invention
 Hog farms are especially prevalent in about a dozen states, one being North
 Carolina which ranks number two in the nation and raises about 17 million
 hogs annually. A typical hog farm creates many tons of solid waste daily.
 For example, in a farm with 3,000 hogs, it is to be expected that the hogs
 will generate 6.3 tons a day of solid waste and currently that waste is
 being disposed of through dumping into lagoons and after a certain amount
 of sedimentation, pumping the surface water up onto farm acreage. This is
 an archaic way of disposing of hog waste and one that damages the
 environment by contaminating the ground water. It is becoming so much of
 an issue that most states have passed moratoriums preventing any new
 production hog farms and are threatening to shut down existing farms if a
 solution to the problem is not found.
 Another environmental concern is the prevalence of waste tires which have
 become a problem to our society as the United States public uses
 approximately 250 million tires a year and has stockpiled, legally and
 illegally throughout the nation, approximately 6 billion tires. Tires are
 currently banned from landfills because they do not decompose and our
 country is desperately searching for environmentally friendly uses for
 waste tires. Currently tire are shred to make tire derived fuel (TDF),
 septic tank drain field use, daily landfill cover, crumb rubber and
 construction materials such as EcoBlocks.
 With the above concerns in mind, it is an objective of the present
 invention to provide a method of efficiently processing solid waste
 collected from farms, specifically hog farms.
 It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a disposal
 site for used tires as an alternative to land fill disposal.
 It is still a further objective of the present invention to provide an
 apparatus which helps facilitate the processing of solid animal waste.
 It is yet a further objective of the present invention to provide a method
 of processing solid waste using EcoBlocks made from waste tires which have
 been determined by the States of Virginia and North Carolina to be
 construction materials having economic value.
 These and other objectives and advantages will become readily apparent to
 those skilled in the art upon reference to the following detailed
 description and accompanying drawing.
 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
 The process herein separates the solids from waste water when the hog barns
 are flushed, recovering approximately 70% of the solids in the initial
 phase of the process. The solids are then dried and sold for poultry feed
 or fertilizer, being high in nutrients. The balance of the suspended
 solids are ultimately removed in the holding ponds and the recycled water
 is not a contaminate as the water pumped from the current lagoon systems.
 The processed water is recycled and used to flush hog barns thereby
 reducing the pollutants and the odor. Any excess water can be pumped on
 the fields for irrigation purposes because it is nutrient rich. It is not
 a contaminate like the waste water that is currently pumped on the fields
 by permit from the lagoons.
 Hog waste is conventionally collected using hog barns having slitted
 concrete floors about three feet above lower concrete floors at about
 ground level. Hogs live their entire life cycle in pens on the slitted
 floor and their waste is pushed by the shuffling of their feet through the
 slits onto the lower concrete floor. Once a week the contents in this
 lower floor area is flushed into a lagoon that can contaminate ground
 water and produce noxious odors.
 The aforedescribed objectives of the invention are realized by depositing
 the waste upon flushing, first into a separator. The separator is
 approximately 11 feet wide, three feet deep and 200 feet long (3.3
 m.times.1 m.times.60 m) and is positioned at an angle so that the bottom
 end of the separator is approximately 3.5 feet (1.2 m) lower than the top
 end. With use of adjustable baffles and a screen that covers the lower
 end, the baffles catch a majority of the solid waste while allowing the
 liquid to drain to reactor cells (described below). When the separator is
 filled with thirty days of flushings from the barns, the separator is
 taken out of use and the contents allowed to drain completely dry. The dry
 waste, which is high in protein and nutrients is mechanically removed from
 the separator with a front end loader or conventional back hoe and placed
 on a concrete apron storage area for final air drying. In the meantime,
 waste accumulated from the barns is routed to a second separator, which
 may be positioned next to or is part of the same physical structure as the
 first separator. It is expected that the reactor cell which receives
 liquid from the separator is sized to fill to capacity in approximately
 six months.
 In the preferred embodiment, two reactor cells are utilized along with one
 polishing cell; each reactor cell being slightly larger than one acre and
 lined with a conventional non-porous polymeric liner which prevents water
 from escaping into the water table. About thirteen inches (13.02 cm) of
 dirt is placed over the polymeric liner. Atop the dirt are placed
 approximately 3,500 EcoBlocks. Each EcoBlock is essentially a bale of
 approximately 110 automobile tires. These EcoBlocks provide vast surface
 area on which conventional biological reactions may occur. Test results
 have shown that these EcoBlocks can in fact be classified as a fixed
 medium reactor--i.e. the surface area provides a stable environment for
 the generation of bacteria to break down the solid waste. Other suitable
 material can and from time to time will be substituted for EcoBlocks to
 achieve the necessary biological reaction. This is in contrast to
 conventional hog lagoons, which are floating medium reactors and do not
 generate their own supplies of bacteria in self-sustaining amounts.
 Also, in the preferred embodiment, water in the reactor cells is
 approximately thirteen feet (4 m) deep; which is about four feet (1.3 m)
 above the top of the EcoBlocks. Excess water drains from the first two
 reactor cells to the polishing cell, which is only approximately 0.75 acre
 in area. Water from the polishing cell may then be used to flush the barns
 and any excess water can be used by the farmer to fertilize and water
 pastures or crops.
 It should be understood that the separator liquids are pumped to the
 reactor cells, and as the reactor cells overflow, gravity drain to the
 polishing cell. Conventional pumps may be used where needed in the event
 gravity draining is not effective due to terrain contours or the like.
 Additionally, pumps may be used to move water from the polishing cell to
 the barn for flushing purposes. Furthermore, most hog farms have a
 plurality of barns, and separators are connected to all barns.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT AND OPERATION OF THE
 INVENTION
 Turning now to the drawings, specifically FIG. 1 shows preferred schematic
 apparatus 10 which comprises plurality of conventional hog barns 11, each
 of which has a concrete floor or pad positioned three feet (1 m) below a
 slitted false floor (neither shown) . A layer of water (also not shown)
 covers the permanent concrete pad. This pad effectively forms a storage
 area for deposited excrement of liquid and solid waste. While this
 invention is preferably directed to hogs, it can be adapted to other
 livestock without departing from the spirit of the invention. Hogs (not
 shown) create solid waste (also not shown) within barns 11 which falls
 through floor slits onto a water covered permanent pad or floor as
 conventional for storage. Once a week or sometimes more frequently, the
 water and waste in the storage area is flushed by water from barns 11 to
 separators 12 (three shown) only to be replaced by a new layer of water.
 This noxious effluent (waste and water) passes through conventional pipes
 18 to one of separators 12. Conventional valves (not shown) may be used to
 prevent premature flushing. (Pumps not shown in the schematic
 representation of FIG. 1 may also be used).
 Separators 12 are positioned at an incline such that liquid therewithin
 will gravity drain through the separator (with baffles and screens) to an
 underground 4,000 gallon tank 32. From tank 32 liquid will be pumped
 through the pump house 33 and pipe 19 to desired reactor cells 13 and 14.
 The adjustable baffles (not shown) and the conventional grate 27 prevents
 solid waste from passing from separators 12 into pipe 19 and reactor cells
 13 and 14. The preferred dimensions of separators 12 are approximately 11
 feet wide, three feet deep and 200 feet long (3.3 m.times.1 m.times.60 m).
 Separators 12 are positioned at an angle so that the bottom end at 32 is
 approximately 3.5 feet (1.2 m) lower than the top end at 34. Three
 separators 12 are shown for sequential use. Separators 12 are physically
 spaced and a valve in 34 is required to transfer the flow of effluent from
 one separator 12 or another. It should be understood that multiple
 separators are preferred and are positioned next to barns 11 near reactor
 cells 13 and 14.
 Valves 20 and 21 control drainage from separators 12 to reactor cell 13 or
 14 respectively. Approximately once a month, one of separators 12 is
 allowed to dry completely, and the remaining solid waste is removed
 mechanically by a conventional front end loader (not shown) for collecting
 of the solids on concrete apron storage area 31 for poultry or fertilizer
 producers. While the first separator 12 is being so dried, waste from
 barns 11 may be routed to the second or third separator 12 thus providing
 continual processing of the hog waste.
 Reactor cells 13 and 14 are each open and slightly larger than one acre and
 are lined with a conventional polymeric liner, such as a polyvinyl
 chloride or polyester material, which prevents liquid from the cells from
 escaping into the water table. Standard waste lagoons are built with a
 clay liner, which is acceptable but does not guarantee against leakage
 into the water table. A polymeric membrane liner as used herein guarantees
 against such leakage. The liner is covered with about thirteen inches (33
 cm) of dirt. This construction method is especially useful for areas in
 which the soil has become unstable due to heavy rains during the
 excavation of reactor cells 13 and 14. Atop the dirt are placed
 approximately 3,500 EcoBlocks 16. It should be understood that EcoBlocks
 16 are also used in second reactor cell 14, but are not shown herein.
 EcoBlocks 16 are preferably a 4'.times.4'.times.2.5' (1.3 m.times.1.3
 m.times.0.76 m) bale of approximately 100-130 waste tires bound with
 conventional polymeric straps, although shredded tires or other substitute
 materials may be used. EcoBlocks 16 provide large amounts of surface area
 on which natural biologic reactions occur to help process and filter the
 water drained from separator 12. In the preferred embodiment, the depth of
 the fluid within each reactor cell 13 and 14 is approximately thirteen
 feet (4 m) deep, and four feet (1.3 m) over the top of EcoBlocks 16. Drain
 pipes 25 and 26 allow excess fluid from reactor cells 13 and 14 to gravity
 drain into polishing cell 15 and can thus be considered overflow pipes.
 Additional tire material (not shown) may be positioned in reactor cells 13
 and 14 to provide additional surface areas on which biological reactions
 may occur.
 Polishing cell 15, also called a polishing pond, is open and approximately
 0.75 acre in area and is lined with a layer of polymeric sheeting and
 dirt, as identical to reactor cells 13 and 14 described above.
 Water stored in reactor cells 13, 14 and in polishing cell 15 is pumped by
 conventional pump and valve assemblies 24, 22 and 23 respectively, back to
 barns 11 for use as the weekly flushing fluid or may be used by the farmer
 to water and/or fertilize his fields or crops through pipe 30 since the
 fluid is extremely rich in nutrients and protein.
 The preceding recitation is provided as an example of the preferred
 embodiment and is not meant to limit the nature of scope of the present
 invention or appended claims.