Process and products using a rotary compression unit
AssigneeEcap Bioenergy, LLC
InventorsRobert Heimann, Allison Talley
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fertilizer/soil conditioner or a fuel source material is formed by processing animal waste by-products through the use of a rotary biomass dryer system. The animal waste by-product includes without limitation manure obtained from cattle or swine; feed lot bedding, poultry litter, a digestate of animal waste by-products obtained from an anaerobic digester, municipal waste, waste meat renderings, waste meat, or a mixture thereof. The processed material may comprise a higher amount of ash and a lower amount of volatile material than the animal waste by-product. The processed material may be stored as a powder or processed into pellets, logs, pucks, briquettes or another convenient shape form.
Claims23
A method, comprising:
- providing an animal waste by-product having a moisture content between about 2 wt. % and about 90 wt. %;
- processing the animal waste by-product through a rotary compression unit (RCU) having a screw and a barrel, the processing including applying compression and friction to the animal waste by-product, in an increasing manner, as the animal waste by-product moves through the RCU;
- separating the animal waste by-product into steam and a processed material;
- removing the steam;
- and
- collecting the processed material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.