Material Characterization and Substrate Suitability Assessment of Chicken Manure for Dry Batch Anaerobic Digestion Processes.

Harald Wedwitschka,Franziska Schäfer,Michael Nelles,Earl Jenson,Daniela Gallegos Ibanez

doi:10.3390/bioengineering7030106

Harald Wedwitschka, Franziska Schäfer + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering7030106

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Abstract

Chicken manure is an agricultural residue material with a high biomass potential. The energetical utilization of this feedstock via anaerobic digestion is an interesting waste treatment option. One waste treatment technology most appropriate for the treatment of stackable (non-free-flowing) dry organic waste materials is the dry batch anaerobic digestion process. The aim of this study was to evaluate the substrate suitability of chicken manure from various sources as feedstock for percolation processes. Chicken manure samples from different housing forms were investigated for their chemical and physical material properties, such as feedstock composition, permeability under compaction and material compressibility. The permeability under compaction of chicken manure ranged from impermeable to sufficiently permeable depending on the type of chicken housing, manure age and bedding material used. Porous materials, such as straw and woodchips, were successfully tested as substrate additives with the ability to enhance material mixture properties to yield superior permeability and allow sufficient percolation. In dry anaerobic batch digestion trials at lab scale, the biogas generation of chicken manure with and without any structure material addition was investigated. Digestion trials were carried out without solid inoculum addition and secondary methanization of volatile components. The specific methane yield of dry chicken manure was measured and found to be 120 to 145 mL/g volatile solids (VS) and 70 to 75 mL/g fresh matter (FM), which represents approximately 70% of the methane potential based on fresh mass of common energy crops, such as corn silage.

Highlights

Due to increasing protein demand for human nutrition, poultry farming is one of the fastest developing sectors of animal husbandry
Chicken manure is the mixture of feces and urine excreted, which contains varying amounts of undigested feeding stuff, desquamated intestinal epithelium, residues of secretion, microorganism from the intestinal flora, metabolites excreted with the urine, as well as other components e.g., feather, egg leftovers, bedding material, grid material and soil. [3]
Chicken manure was tested for the material properties of total solids (TS) and volatile solids (VS), nitrogen, protein, fat and fiber composition

Summary

Introduction

Due to increasing protein demand for human nutrition, poultry farming is one of the fastest developing sectors of animal husbandry. In Germany, the total number of chickens in the production cycle increased from 109 million animals in 2003, to approximately 158 million animals in 2016, and the number of chickens kept per farm increased from approximately 1217 to 3361 during this time span [2]. These growing livestock numbers lead to an increase of the process related waste material production. More than half of these emissions are caused by manure handling

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