Farms and Food & Beverage Industries are under strict regulations for waste management - still, unmanageable algae blooms from excessive waste nutrients are causing human and environmental health issues as well as losses in water related industries and related real estate businesses. THEY ARE ALL SEEKING A BETTER SOLUTION!
Livestock and poultry on the largest factory farms produced 369 million tons of manure in 2012 — almost 13 times more than the 312 million people in the United States. [1] This 13.8 billion cubic feet of manure is enough to fill the Dallas Cowboys stadium 133 times. [2] The household waste produced in most U.S. communities is treated in municipal sewer systems, but factory farm manure is stored in lagoons and ultimately applied, untreated, to farm fields as fertilizer (Food & Water Watch). Globally, about one-third of food is wasted: 1.6bn tonnes of produce a year, with a value of about $1tn. If this wasted food were stacked in 20-cubic metre skips, it would fill 80m of them, enough to reach all the way to the moon, and encircle it once [3].
[1] USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. 2012 Census of Agriculture. United States Summary and State Data at Tables 11, 12 and 20; Food & Water Watch calculation comparing human and livestock waste production based on EPA (2004) at 9. [2] USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. “Agricultural Waste Management Field Handbook.” Chapter 4, Agricultural Waste Characteristics. March 2008 at 4-12 to 4-20; Dallas Cowboys. [Press release]. “Dallas Cowboys Stadium Design Statement.” December 12, 2006. [3] Half of all US food produce is thrown away.The Guardian. Jul 2016
Photo Source: Food & Water Watch
GSR's patent pending, scalable, bolt-on platform changes the waste nutrient management game - it converts the enormously growing problem of excessive nutrients into an enormous opportunity by generating new revenue sources from recovered nutrients and saves the treatment costs anywhere - nationwide and worldwide. GSR's process combines cutting edge technological advances with mass production of the fastest growing biomass feeding on excess nutrients to convert them into valued products for the fastest growing food, water, and energy markets.
Food & beverage Industries and Livestock farms generating wastes and effluents containing excessive nutrients are our potential partners. They are required to meet standards for the handling and recycling of wastewater nutrients per guidelines from state and federal regulatory agencies.
Our partner farm site hosting an anaerobic digester system
Photo Source: Google Maps
Our industry partner Green Mountain Power is planning to build a community digester that will serve three St. Albans farms.
Photo Source: Green
Mountain Power Google Map in VPR News
The commonly used anaerobic biodigester systems for the treatment of waste are effective mostly in treating the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), but not nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) removal. This effluent coming out of biodigesters needs to be further treated before it can be discharged into water streams as per water quality regulations, and several host sites cannot afford such a system. GSR's platform serves sites with or without a digester. After the pre-treatment process, GSR selects pre-tested microalgal strains (from its collection facility) for mass culturing, and utilizes the symbiotic potential between the microbial communities. For instance, the photosynthetic microalgae produces oxygen for the bacterial community through photosynthesis, and heterotrophic bacteria breaks down the organic material to supply the growing biomass with the required carbon, nitrogen, and other products of decomposition - this symbiotic process is responsible for the removal of effluent components from wastewater via adsorption on living or dead biomass. The mature biomass is harvested and processed into target molecules and products, and the clean water is recycled. Our proprietary processes also utilizes biochar for products.
Photo credit: NASA’s Earth Observatory