Patent ID: 7547390

Claim:
A system for converting animal waste, in the form of waste slurry, to useful by-products comprising: a chopper unit configured to receive waste slurry from a waste slurry source and fragment the waste slurry for reducing binding of fibrous materials contained within the waste slurry; a mixing tank configured to receive the fragmented waste slurry and for mixing the fragmented waste slurry so as to maintain solids in suspension within the fragmented waste slurry, said mixing tank including a mixing device configured for mixing the fragmented waste slurry to maintain the solids in suspension with minimal mixing turbulence; a solids recovery unit configured to remove at least a predetermined minimum amount of solids from the fragmented waste slurry producing thereby a solids output and a liquid output, wherein the minimum amount of recovered solids is at least 75% of the solid content of the waste slurry; and a gas production unit comprising an input hopper adapted to receive the solids output, the gas production unit configured to produce methane/ethane gas and ash from the received solids output.