I have been gathering some information on alternative methods for producing energy from poultry litter since I first came across the Fibrowatt proposal last year. In Page County, when we first encountered the company, we got a saturated message that made it sound like their process is the only solution. There are some alternatives, and these technologies appear to offer scalable solutions – they can be installed down to the single farm level, with the possibility of being increased to larger-sized operations. Like any technology that deals with industrial scale waste, which is effectively what we are talking about with poultry litter, they come with trade-offs; still it seems worthwhile to check them out.
So over the next few posts I will be reviewing some of this material and posting summaries on the blog. While I am educating myself on them, I'll refer to the technologies as:
- Biochar – a process that heats the waste at a low temperature, providing heat for local use and a by-product, the char, that can be used as a fertilizer, with the benefit of long-term storage of carbon dioxide
- Gasification – a process that uses heat to treat the waste, producing a gas fuel the feeds the process itself and heat that can be used in a variety of applications. There are by-products, my research will look into what they are and alternatives for using them.
I have case study material from South Carolina, Michigan, and West Virginia to go through here – what it says to me is there is no need to rush ahead with the proposed Fibrowatt approach. Virginia’s working group should be sure to take a look at these alternatives as well.
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