Co-digestion of agricultural and municipal waste to produce energy and soil amendment.

In agriculture, manure and cotton gin waste are major environmental liabilities. Likewise, grass is an important organic component of municipal waste. These wastes were combined and used as substrates in a two-phase, pilot-scale anaerobic digester to evaluate the potential for biogas (methane) production, waste minimisation, and the digestate value as soil amendment.

Rapid oxidation of sulfide mine tailings by reaction with potassium ferrate.

The chemistry of sulfide mine tailings treated with potassium ferrate (K2FeO4) in aqueous slurry has been investigated. The reaction system is believed to parallel a geochemical oxidation in which ferrate ion replaces oxygen. This chemical system utilized in a pipeline (as a plug flow reactor) may have application eliminating the potential for tailings to leach acid while recovering the metal from the tailings.