A step towards the production of manure-based fertilizers: Disclosing the effects of animal species and slurry treatment on their nutrients content and availability

In a context of climate change and circular economy, it is fundamental to produce animal manure-based fertilizers attractive to farmers who are reluctant to use heterogeneous materials, poorly characterized and with unbalanced nutrient contents, namely N:P ratios different from plant requirements. Hence, the aim of the present study was to assess the potential of different treated and non-treated animal manures to produce tailor-made manure-based fertilizers with known N:P ratios. Seven manures were considered: cattle, caprine and poultry solid manures, two contrasting cattle slurries and two contrasting swine slurries. Slurries were further treated by solid-liquid separation, acidification, and acidification followed by solid-liquid separation. Raw and treated manures were fully characterized to assess the effect of manure type and treatment on their nutrient contents and N:P ratios, to incorporate them in manure-based fertilizers with selected N:P ratio. The present results were essential to support the manure-based fertilizer production and identify which materials could be considered: it appears clearly that the pig slurry with all stages of production and the correspondent liquid fraction cannot be used due to their low nutrients content. It was shown that the solid fractions rich in P and with a NT:N–NH4+ ratio close to 1 are an excellent material to prepare manure-based fertilizers. Acidification, combined with solidliquid separation, produced a liquid fraction rich in both N and P and with a NT:PT ratio close to 1, with the additional benefit of a slow N-release material. Some of the manures or sub-products obtained after treatment provided the usual N:P ratio required by farmers and could be used directly as substitutes of mineral fertilizers. Nevertheless, the blending of some of these materials has a stronger potential to the production of specific manure-based fertilizer info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion