Fowl play is strongly suspected
15 Jan 2000
With countryside pursuits so much in the news, our thoughts naturally turn to chicken droppings. One of the less attractive aspects of farmyard life, you might think. But to waste treatment firm Lanstar, it's a vital raw material.
Lanstar has developed a process which uses microorganisms found in chicken and turkey litter to break down toxic compounds that are contained within a benign matrix - for example, spent and contaminated solvents within an activated carbon filter, or inorganic salts contaminated with pesticides.
Normally, such compounds would be incinerated, but this is not viable when the toxic material comprises a small fraction of the waste. The Lanstar technology incorporates the waste, along with the chicken droppings, into compost, where the microorganisms can render the toxic substances harmless.
The process, which relies on careful control of oxygen and moisture levels in the compost, monitoring of temperature, and continual analysis of the toxic components of the mixture, has already been used to break down low-flash solvents; styrene; and hydrocarbons in soils.
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