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Over the past five years, an advanced aerobic thermophilic process for treatment of livestock waste, especially swine waste, has been developed at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Like aerobic thermophilic systems of the past, it successfully bio-oxidizes the waste, including odor-causing compounds, and produces enough energy to meet the thermophilic needs of the process (operation at 55-60 C). As an improvement on the past, extra energy is produced for farm use in drying and heating. This extra energy increases the profitability of the process.

This paper will focus on the ongoing activity of conversion of the batch system into a semicontinuous system design more suitable for a full-scale demonstration under progress. Three data sets are now available, one from batch operating on gestation building waste, a second from semicontinuous operation of a gestation waste at system residence times of around 6 days and a third, running semi-continuous on finishing waste at system residence times of over 13 days. Biological heat production is calculated from COD removals and all cases are similar with total biological heat production calculated in the range of 7-9 kW 100 hogs-1.