Acidification of pig slurry before separation to improve slurry management on farms

Pig slurry, rich in plant nutrients such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), is generally applied to soil as organic fertilizer. However, costs related to slurry transport may limit its utilization to fields close to the farm, leading to significant N losses, namely ammonia (NH3) emissions. Slurry acidification, to minimize NH3 emissions, is a potential solution to this problem, while solid-liquid separation leads to a solid fraction (SF) - rich in organic matter (OM) and phosphorus - and a liquid fraction (LF) rich in soluble nutrients. We hypothesized that a combination of acidification and separation could affect the quality of the resulting fractions depending on the separation technique used. After acidification, the two most common techniques for separation, centrifugation (CF) and screw-press (SP), were applied. The main characteristics of the slurry fractions in terms of nutrient concentrations and speciation as well as the potential N mineralization (PNM) were analysed. Our results show SFs with improved properties, mostly N and PNM when acidification is performed before separation with both techniques. The PNM was significantly increased in LFs from both techniques after acidification. The [Formula: see text] concentration increased in LFs from SP with acidification; therefore, slurry acidification is recommended to avoid any N losses during the separation process with SP, while CF may not require such pretreatment. Acidification could allow the use of a cheaper technique such as SP relative to CF since it prevents NH3 emissions during the separation process and leads to more equilibrated fractions in terms of nutrient composition.