It’s rather normal to think about manure being converted into fertilizer. But it’s never the convention to turn animal dung into potable water.
That is about to change now after two engineers claimed that they have developed a machine which converts manure into both fertilizer and drinking water. Based in the city of Aberdeen in Scotland, Grant Leslie and John Jones call their invention “H2OPE.”
The 33-year-old Leslie and the 35-year-old Jones made H2OPE to scoop in manure and process it into water and premium-grade fertilizer for crops. According to the two, who built their own firm they call SEM Energy Group, the water manufactured from this process can be safely consumed.
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Jones shared that they believe there is a huge demand across Europe, as well as Turkey, India, China and the USA. These countries face the greatest environment and health dangers in relation to slurry.
Both hope that the machine, which will be unveiled later this September, will tackle pollution issues caused by slurry leaking into rivers, eventually harming humans and wildlife.
One study has identified ammonia emissions from animal excrement as the major cause of airborne heart and lung disease. Also, thousands of fish die when slurry escapes into waterways, another research said.
Now the two engineers think that they have the solution to this problem, also producing potable water along the process.
“The water we produce can be put back into polluted rivers to help clean them up. The fertilizer generated can be used by farmers to cover the cost of hiring our equipment,” Jones shared.
On the other hand, Leslie claimed, “Our machine is delivered to the farm where it consumes the slurry and extracts water. It is then purified before emerging as clean usable water.
“The ability to produce water suitable for drinking without using chemicals is very important. The system can process up to 20 tons an hour and there is no waste,” he added.
Source: Herald Scotland
