Bio-Conversion of Broiler House Litter. Final Report

摘要

Our task was to explore the feasibility of producing enough methane-biogas from chicken litter to significantly effect HVAC expense in a broiler house operation. The primary equipment used was to be converted from equipment found in the agricultural community. Our conclusions are as follows: (1) the potential is great; (2) the time, work, and money involved will prevent all but the most inspired from building a good working digestor system; (3) barring the availability of commercial digestors, the best bet is a bermed or pit digestor (cost/cubic foot); (4) our production rate of six cubic feet of methane/cubic foot of dry substrate (20 day holding cycle) equates to a yield of 1000 to 1250 therms of gas/clean out; (5) one might realistically hope to improve this yield by 10 to 15%. The yield coupled with tax benefits and fertilizer by-product make this a viable option for the mechanically inclined; and (6) we made a mistake by not building a pit type unit. In holding to an objective of portability, we missed the opportunity to work with larger loads and the parameters of pit operation (insulation, etc.). 6 references, 3 figures. (ERA citation 10:011016)