This study of thermal conversion forms part of wider project on alternatives to land spreading being undertaken by the Cleaner Production Promotion Unit at University College Cork and Centre for Environmental Research at the University of Limerick. Landspreading of organic waste, particularly of pig and poultry manure, currently poses a significant threat to the quality of surface and ground water through leaching and/or run-off, may over-nutrify soil and causes problems of odour nuisance. Reducing the environmental risk of current Irish land spreading practice depends on the good management of a number of factors, e.g. the conditions under which the waste is spread, the timing and rate of application, nutrient management planning for the soil type and general condition of the land, the return to land of on-farm slurries, the nutrient requirements of grass, cereals or field crops to be grown on the land and the hydro-geological profile of the spreading area. As a response to the need to eliminate or reduce environmental risk and liability, the overall project will assess a variety of innovative technologies with applications in waste management / waste treatment currently available or under research and development. Such technologies could help advance sustainable development. The part of the project relating to the thermal conversion technology aims to resolve significant environmental issues relating to the technology that would otherwise reduce the environmental risks of land spreading pig slurry by reducing volumes of raw pig slurry by 80% - recovering most of the nutritional value of the raw slurry for recycling as a fertiliser and soil conditioner - enabling the environmentally safe management of a problematic waste as a useful commercial product.