Pipeline vs. Truck Transport of Beef Cattle Manure

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion of manure can be conducted at a wide range of capacities. Ascapacity increases, economies of scale in capital equipment are realized but transportation costsincrease as manure must be carried longer distances to the plant site. In this study we evaluate thecost of pipelining manure from beef cattle confined feeding operations, i.e. feedlots, as an alternativeto truck transport. Pipeline transportation cost is minimized at a slurry concentration of about 12%;low concentrations require a larger pipeline, and high concentrations require higher pumping costs.Pipelining costs are highly scale dependent, while trucking costs are virtually independent of scale.Manure starts its journey to a digester on a truck; pipelining of manure is more economic thanongoing truck transport for manure from animals in excess of 95,000. Incremental net fixed costs fortrans-shipment from truck to pipeline are low for manure because equipment installed at the pipelineinlet eliminates the need for identical equipment within the digester plant; the incremental fixed cost identified in this study is the cost of a pipeline operator. A pipeline must run for a minimum distanceto recover the incremental fixed cost of trans-shipment; at 300,000 animals, the minimum economicpipeline distance is 8 km. Pipeline transport of beef cattle manure has the potential to reduce overalltransportation cost to a large centralized digester in areas such as Dodge City, Kansas orLethbridge, Alberta where very large numbers of beef cattle are in feedlots. A 50 km pipeline carryingmanure from 300,000 beef cattle has a overall transport cost of 60% of ongoing truck transport.