Renewable energy from poultry industry using thermo–chemical process strategies for in-situ power generation

This work analyses comparatively the conversion of poultry litter waste into electric energy considering different thermochemical processes under partial or complete oxidation conditions. By comparing three thermochemical conversion chains in terms of poultry litter waste combustion, pyro-combustion and pyro-gasification, the study main results can be summed up: by varying the typical moisture content from 5 up to 25%, direct combustion of the poultry litter waste represents the best energy recovery solution with a maxim power output of 2.9 MW at 86 t/day feed-flow rate for the considered case. Regarding the pyrolysis by-products (gas, tar, and char) and their chain conversion under fully or reduced atmosphere we can conclude that moisture underlines the treatment choice. In other words, if moisture is higher than 17% poultry litter pyro-gasification is preferable and when is less or equal to 15% poultry litter pyro-combustion is the most suitable option.