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Topic Name: Transportable pyrolysis : Convert poultry litter into bio-oil
Category: Environmental Fluid Mechanics
Research persons: Foster A Agblevor, Sedat H Beis,OfeiMante, Ryan Tarrant,
Location: Virginia Tech ,Biological Systems Engineering,Seitz Hall Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States
Details
Foster Agblevor, associate professor of biological systems engineering, is
leading the team of researchers in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
at Virginia Tech developing transportable pyrolysis units that will convert
poultry litter into bio-oil, providing an economical disposal system while
reducing environmental effects and biosecurity issues.
Agblevor will present the research during the 234th American Chemical Society
National Meeting in Boston on August 19-23.
Agblevor is working with poultry growers to test technology that would convert
poultry litter to three value-added byproducts – pyrodiesel (bio-oil), producer
gas, and fertilizer. The pyrolysis unit heats the litter until it vaporizes. The
vapor is then condensed to produce the bio-oil, and a slow release fertilizer 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
United States. 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
harbor such diseases 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.
“The self-contained transportable pyrolsis unit will allow poultry producers to
process the litter on site rather than having to haul the litter to a separate
location,” Agblevor said. “In addition, the thermochemical process destroys the
microorganisms reducing the likelihood of the transmission of disease to other
locations.”
Poultry litter from broiler chickens and turkeys and bedding materials (wood
shavings or peanut hulls) were converted into bio-oils in a fast pyrolysis
fluidized bed reactor.
According to Agblevor, bio-oil yields ranged from 30 to 50 percent by weight,
depending on the age and the bedding content of the litter. Bedding material
that was mostly hardwood shavings yielded bio-oil as high as 62 percent by
weight. The higher heating value of the poultry litter bio-oil ranged from 26 to
29 mega joules per kilogram while bio-oil from bedding material was only 24 mega
joules per kilogram. The bio-oils had relatively high nitrogen content ranging
from 4 percent to 7 percent by weight, very low sulfur content, below 1 percent
by weight, and were very viscous. The char yield ranged from 30 percent to 50
percent by weight, depending on the source, age, and composition of the poultry
litter. The char also had a high ash content, ranging from 30 percent to 60
percent by weight, depending on the age and source of litter.
“The type of poultry litter used will affect the amount and quality of the
bio-oil produced and ultimately will impact the producer’s profitability,”
Agblevor said. “Finding the right set of conditions for the poultry litter is
key to the adaptation of this technology.”
About Researchers:
Foster A Agblevor, Associate Professor
E-mail: fagblevo@vt.edu
Phone: 540-231-2578
Address: Biological Systems Engineering
212 Seitz Hall
Postal Code: 0303
Sedat H Beis, Non Teaching PT Temp Faculty
E-mail: sedat@vt.edu
Phone: 540-231-2578
Address: Biological Systems Engineering
14 Agnew
Postal Code: 0303
Mante, Ofei
203 Seitz Hall Blacksburg, VA 24061
(540)231-2578, omante@vt.edu
Mr Ofei Mante has BS in Chemical Engineering from Kwamw Nkrumah University of
Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. He is currently pursuing MS graduate
studies in Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech. The focus of his
research is the conversion of animal waste into value-added products.
Previous activity about the research-
Poultry growers and dairy producers in the Shenandoah Valley are hoping to help
improve the environment and enhance their bottom lines with some innovative
organic resource management.
Organic resources from animal agriculture, a.k.a. poultry litter and livestock
manure, have been identified as significant contributors to decreased water
quality in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Finding solutions to manage the excess
nutrients in these resources is critical to the area’s economy, environment, and
society.
Foster Agblevor and Jactone Arogo Ogejo, researchers in the Department of
Biological Systems Engineering, are hoping their technological approaches will
produce effective and profitable solutions to this age-old problem of nutrient
management.
Their research is part of a concentrated effort by Virginia Tech researchers,
Virginia Cooperative Extension specialists and agents, conservation
organizations, state agencies, and private industry to determine the most
effective means to support the agricultural community and manage the excess
nutrients in the Shenandoah Valley. The research is being funded by a $1 million
grant from the
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Chesapeake Bay Targeted Watershed
Program.
Agblevor is working with poultry growers to test technology that would convert
poultry litter to pyrodiesel (bio-oil), producer gas, and fertilizer. His
research uses a portable pyrolysis unit to convert the poultry litter into the
three valueadded byproducts. The pyrolysis unit heats the litter until it
vaporizes. The vapor is then condensed to produce the bio-oil, and a slow
release fertilizer is recovered from the reactor. The gas that is produced can
then be used to operate the pyrolysis unit, making it a self-sufficient system.
According to Agblevor, the volume of the poultry litter is reduced by 60 percent
using this process with 40 percent converted to bio-oil, 40 percent converted to
a slow release fertilizer, and 20 percent converted into a producer gas.
When the project is at full capacity, Agblevor expects to convert 100,000 tons
of litter each year to bio-oil and other products, removing 5.8 million pounds
of phosphorus and 5 million tons of nitrogen from the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
Innovative nutrient removal techniques are needed on dairy farms as well, as
they face increasing land shortages for appropriate land application of manure
and pressure to expand their operations to remain economically viable. Arogo is
testing an on-farm nutrient removal reactor to concentrate 40 percent of the
phosphorus (approximately 24 pounds of phosphorus per year per cow) from dairy
manure using struvite crystallization.
The ratio of nitrogen to phosphorus in non-processed manure is much higher than
what crops actually need. When the manure is applied to the soil, the soil is
saturated with phosphorus, which runs off into surface waters. Arogo’s challenge
is to capture and isolate some of phosphorus from the manure and leave the
majority of nitrogen in place, making the remaining organic resource more
environmentally sound.
The phosphorus byproduct (struvite) that is created through the crystallization
process has many uses. It can be used as a slow release fertilizer, in the
manufacture of cleaning products, as a raw material for the phosphate industry,
in the making of fire-resistant panels, and as a binding material in cements.
In addition to refining and demonstrating the various technologies,
the researchers are also looking at expanding opportunities for marketing the
value-added products – struvite, pyrolsis char (slow release fertilizer), and
compost – by coordinating the purchase and
sale of these products through a nutrient broker.
“This ‘market maker’ will help identify markets for these materials and help
develop a marketing plan,” says Arogo. “The establishment of markets for these
products is critical to the adaptation of these technologies and to sustain
nitrogen and phosphorus reduction in the watershed.”
The researchers and Extension faculty members are also conducting educational
programs about their respective processes to betterinform
producers about the technologies and how the producers might incorporate them
into their operations.
Related previous research for your interest-
Converting Poultry Litter into Energy in the US
Biobased Products and Bioenergy Initiative
BioOil—The World’s Growing Energy Resource
Elements of a BioBased Economy: BioBased Energy, Fuels, and Products Funded:
This research is part of a concentrated effort
by Virginia Tech researchers,
Virginia Cooperative
Extension specialists and agents, conservation organizations, state
agencies, and private industry to determine the most effective means to support
the agricultural community and manage the excess nutrients in the Shenandoah
Valley. The research is being funded by a $1 million grant from the National
Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Chesapeake Bay Targeted Watershed Program.
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