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.