Gasifier lab trials at NUS, Singapore

Co-gasification of woody biomass and chicken manure: syngas production, biochar reutilization, and cost-benefit analysis

Abstract

The management and disposal of livestock manure has become one of the top environmental issues at a global scale in line with the tremendous growth of poultry industry over the past decades. In this work, a potential alternative method for the disposal of chicken manure from Singapore local hen layer farms was studied. Gasification was proposed as the green technology to convert chicken manure into clean energy. Through gasification experiments in a 10 kW fixed bed downdraft gasifier, it was found that chicken manure was indeed a compatible feedstock for gasification in the presence of wood waste. The co-gasification of 30 wt% chicken manure and 70 wt% wood waste produced syngas of comparable quality to that of gasification of pure wood waste, with a syngas lower heating value (LHV) of 5.23 MJ/Nm³ and 4.68 MJ/Nm³, respectively. Furthermore, the capability of the gasification derived biochar in the removal of an emerging contaminant (artificial sweetener such as Acesulfame, Saccharin and Cyclamate) via adsorption was also conducted in the second part of this study. The results showed that the biochar was effective in the removal of the contaminant and the mechanism of adsorption of artificial sweetener by biochar was postulated to be likely via electrostatic interaction as well as specific interaction. Finally, we conducted a cost-benefit analysis for the deployment of a gasification system in a hen layer farm using a Monte Carlo simulation model.

Playing chicken with biochar

Standard shed based poultry and egg production systems can have negative impacts on animal welfare / health and the local and wider environment. These problems usually have economic impacts on the industry. Biochar has been shown to have a positive effect over a wide range of issues via diverse applications.

There are many interesting articles and published research on the use of biochar in the poultry industry. This article from David Yarrow is already a few months old but provides a great summary on the opportunities that are being explored around the world.