Click on “Download PDF” for the PDF version or on the title for the HTML version.

If you are not an ASABE member or if your employer has not arranged for access to the full-text, Click here for options.

Premium Standard Farms, Inc. (PSF) operates a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) named the Whitetail Farm in northwest Missouri. A nitrification and denitrification system has been designed, constructed and placed into operation for six individual sites of 8,800 grow-finish pigs each for a total of 52,800 head. Nitrification and denitrification occurs at a single wastewater treatment plant centrally located on the farm.

The system is designed to reduce property line odor concentrations to less than regulatory thresholds, air emissions of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide from wastewater treatment sources, and effluent nitrogen concentration of total nitrogen before land application by at least 50 percent. The reduction of land area required for effluent irrigation is expected to reduce the spill risk associated with irrigating large acreages on soils with high clay content and slopes of up to 20 percent.

Operation of the system began in April 2002 and total nitrogen reduction has averaged approximately 87%. Significant foam generation during aeration has caused operational difficulties until a defoaming agent was continuously added. Significantly less supplemental alkalinity and methanol has been needed than predicted during design. Performance data collected over the next year will help optimize design of the next system.