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Unwanted manure put to use in building materials

Omar Faruk, post-doctoral assistant at Michigan State University, holds dried manure that is processed into building materials such as particle board on Feb 2. PHOTO: AP

Home-buyers of tomorrow could find themselves walking across floors made from manure.

That is no cow pie-in-the-sky dream, say researchers at Michigan State University and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

They say fiber from processed and sterilized cow manure could take the place of sawdust in fiberboard, which is used to make everything from furniture to flooring to store shelves. And the resulting product smells just fine.

The researchers hope it could be part of the solution to disposing of the 680 billion to 900 billion kilograms of manure produced annually in the US.

Farmers traditionally use manure to fertilize their fields. But as the scale of farms has grown -- with more and more animals densely concentrated in a single location -- they can find themselves with too little land for the manure they produce.

"Farmers are having to put more and more money into dealing with manure," said Tim Zauche, a chemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville who is working on the USDA research project.

Environmental activists and regulators are paying increased attention to the contamination of streams and underground water sources from manure runoff.

"We really need to think outside the box on what uses for manure are," said Wendy Powers, a professor of agriculture at Michigan State University.

Scientists at Michigan State in East Lansing and at the USDA's Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin, are conducting tests on various types of fiberboard made with manure.

As with the wood-based original, the manure-based product is made by combining fibers with a chemical resin, then subjecting the mixture to heat and pressure.

So far, manure-based fiberboard seems to match or beat the quality of wood-based products.

The USDA lab in Wisconsin recently began an 18-month, US$30,000 study to test the strength and endurance of the manure-based fiberboard and examine the economic practicality of using digested fiber to make building products.

One good thing about manure-based fiber is cost, said Zauche. Farmers who currently pay to dispose of manure could soon be selling it.
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