Chicken waste not want not

Foster Agblevor, associate professor of biological systems engineering at Virginia Tech, is leading a team of researchers in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences that is developing transportable pyrolysis units that will convert poultry litter into bio-oil.

Agblevor is working with poultry growers to test the technology that would convert poultry litter to three value-added byproducts – pyrodiesel (bio-oil), producer gas, and fertiliser. The pyrolysis unit heats the litter until it vaporises. The vapour is then condensed to produce the bio-oil, and a slow release fertiliser is recovered from the reactor. The gas can then be used to operate the pyrolysis unit, making it a self-sufficient system.

More than 5.6 million tons of poultry litter are produced each year in the US. The litter consists of a mixture of bedding, manure, feathers, and spilled feed. According to Agblevor, current disposal methods such as land application and feeding to cattle are under pressure because of pollution of water resources due to leaching and runoff and concern about mad cow disease contamination in the food chain. There are also concerns that poultry litter can harbour diseases such as avian influenza. While avian influenza is not harmful to humans, people can spread it on their shoes, with their vehicles, or through movement of litter.