Manitoba Conservation, Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives and the Puratone Corporation are evaluating a mobile centrifuge manure separation unit at one of Puratone's barns near Niverville.

The technology has been used in France for the past 15 to 20 years and was introduced to Quebec in 2002 in response to new phosphorus application regulations.

Marc Trudelle, a soil specialist with Manitoba Conservation, says the purpose of using the technology in Manitoba is to remove, at a low cost, as much phosphorus as possible.

Marc Trudelle-Manitoba Conservation

The technology works like an airplane turbine.

It turns at about 45 hundred RPM and this will separate the liquid manure into two parts, one liquid fraction which includes most of the nitrogen and another solid fraction which includes most of the phosphorus.

The main objective here is to keep the liquid fraction near the barn with all the nitrogen without the phosphorus and be able to export the solid part with the phosphorus to other fields or to other operations or even to other areas as well.

The interesting point with the centrifuge is we don't use any chemical right now to improve the efficiency so we only need the equipment without any other additive to manure.

Trudelle notes, in Quebec, centrifuge technology has achieved about 70 percent removal of the phosphorus from swine manure and similar results, from 65 to 75 percent removal, are expected in Manitoba.