Historically manure has found utili

Historically manure has found utilization as fertilizer in agriculture because it
contributes to the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients, such
as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. However, the current European Directive
91/676 reduces drastically the application of this material as fertilizer due to its
high nitrate content. Therefore, identification of alternative eco-friendly disposal
routes with potential financial benefits has become the need, and particularly
promising is the energetic valorization of these biomasses. Poultry litter represents
one of the more challenging bio-fuel feedstock for energy generation, being easy
to handle and showing a composition that potentially assures a high energy content
and the production of a byproduct (ash) with good fertilizing properties. In this
paper an evaluation of the technical and economic feasibility of the energy
conversion technologies usable to recover both the potential energy and fertilizer
properties of poultry litter was provided. The focus was on the poultry farms of
the North-East Italy, where more than half of the national poultry production is
concentrated. The preliminary cost analysis suggests that actually energy
production from poultry litter is economically viable in the case of large off-site
plants only by means of anaerobic digestion, while in the case of small plants
operating in situ for a mean holding capacity farm, utilization of gasification
appears to be an option