Open AccessFast and Accurate Quantification of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Constituents in Animal Slurries Using NMR Sensor Technology
Author(s) -
Ole Mejlhede Jensen,
Michael Beyer,
M.K. Sørensen,
Maria Kreimeyer,
Niels Chr. Nielsen
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
acs omega
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.779
H-Index - 40
ISSN - 2470-1343
DOI - 10.1021/acsomega.1c01441
Subject(s) - slurry , biogas , phosphorus , nitrogen , fertilizer , chemistry , environmental science , environmental chemistry , waste management , environmental engineering , engineering , organic chemistry
The optimal processing of animal slurry with a minimal environmental impact either as an organic fertilizer or as an energy source for biogas production fundamentally requires accurate, fast, cost-effective, and mobile analytical techniques for the measurement of nitrogen and phosphorus in large volumes of liquid animal slurry. Based on more than 300 different slurries from different species and origins, we provide here an extensive analysis of low-field NMR and standard laboratory measurements for animal slurry analysis. It is found that low-field NMR provides higher precision than wet chemistry laboratory measurements for ammonium nitrogen and total nitrogen, while it provides slightly lower precision for total phosphorus measurements. Low-field NMR may, through a square-root dependency between time and precision, be adapted for analysis at farms, in slurry tankers/transporters, in biogas digesters, or in laboratories.