3 May 2022

3 minute read

By: Pipe Masters / Freetilizer

Freetilizer is an innovative technology with a pending patent that creates new value for organic waste and by‐products from the primary sector or the food processing industry, transforming them into organic fertilizers in less than 24 hours. The entire process is energy efficient, fast, compact and utilizes all resources with a zero‐waste approach.

Learn more about how the Freetilizer process works:

1 - Pig Farming

The increase in the world population increase has resulted in a higher demand for food production. To meet such high demand, the livestock production systems have been shifting from an extensive to an intensive activity, leading to the production of high volumes of animal slurry. An urgent demand has arisen for alternative treatment approaches to deal with the excess nutrients found in pig slurry, deterioration of surrounding water resources, greenhouse gas emissions, and unpleasant odors.

2 - Pig Slurry

Different strategies have been proposed to treat slurries, facilitating their management, and reducing their environmental impact: acidification, additives, solid-liquid separation, biological processes (aerobic or anaerobic), and thermal processing. Even though these processes can render products with potential as fertilizers, they are time-consuming and the majority are costly methods due to their high-energy input. Considering the large volumes of animal slurry produced daily, the speed of the treatment procedure is of utmost importance. Adequate management of animal slurry should be characterized by an effective treatment that is economically viable as well as eco-friendly. Furthermore, it should entail the valorization of slurry, contributing to the generation of added value products that may contribute to the sustainability of the agricultural sector, integrating it into the circular economy concept.

3 - Freetilizer Technology

Freetilizer is an innovative technology with a pending patent, based on a hydrolysis process that applies specific enzymes in a reactor with controlled agitation, pH and temperature and creates new value for organic waste, transforming it into organic fertilizers in less than 24 hours. The application of a separation process combined with Freetilizer technology presents excellent results for the valorisation of pig slurry.

The separation of pig slurry into a solid and liquid fraction, allows a farmer to draw value from both fractions and simultaneously represent an inexpensive treatment option. The liquid fraction becomes less concentrated in solids keeping the nitrogen and potassium. The solid fraction retains most of the organics, nitrogen and phosphorus. The application of an enzymatic digestion to the solid fraction promotes an increase in the bioavailability of nutrients. The procedure ends with an efficient drying step, using a vacuum drying process that enables water evaporation at lower temperatures which guarantees nutrient quality preservation and results in the formation of a stable product. Therefore, the solid fraction can be more efficiently transported over longer distances for crop fertilizer use in arable areas. The liquid fraction can be concentrated efficiently using the vacuum drying system until desired nutrient composition is achieved that can be used directly at the farm or distributed for commercial purposes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first-time that a two-way valorisation pathway is proposed for pig slurry management, using a strategy that promotes the integration of pig farming into the circular economy concept.

4 - Organic Fertilizer

The use of treated pig slurry as a soil fertilizer remains as an obvious and attractive solution to reduce the environmental impact of this waste, as well as minimize the dependency on mineral fertilizers that have a high ecological footprint. The nutritional composition of the two products obtained with the Freetilizer technology is another differentiating factor from other treatment techniques. While solid fertilizer is rich in phosphorus and is one of the most limited nutrients in nature, liquid fertilizer has a high content of soluble organic matter making it possible to distribute nutrients by fertirrigation.

5 - Sales

Financially, there will be a direct benefit for the agri-food industries, which will now be able to profit from the waste fraction, making it possible to amortize the investment in a short period of time and ensure the economic sustainability.

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