Renewable Energy Generation on Broiler Poultry Farms

The overall goal of this project is to implement a unique and innovative market-based solution for effectively managing Energy generation on a typical broiler poultry farm, while addressing the highly critical issue of broiler litter disposal. An on-farm anaerobic digester is an innovative approach to conserving water, soil and atmospheric resources while generating bio-based renewable Energy and eliminating the problems of litter and dead-bird disposal. Even though the science behind anaerobic digestion is well understood, using an anaerobic digester to manage broiler litter is a truly innovative approach and has only become feasible due to a recent change in poultry production practices as described in the narrative. The proposed system will be "farmer-friendly" production-oriented version of an existing experimental poultry litter digester that is expected to come online by mid-2006. The highly-experienced project team will design the proposed new system to be effective and affordable, considering long-term economic and operational perspectives, by the typical 4-6 house broiler farm. There are nearly 2000 such farms in the state of Mississippi. This project will (1) optimize on-farm labor requirements of such systems, (2) conduct education and market coordinating efforts to farmers and other stakeholders to explain the utilization, (3) conduct a poultry growers market survey to determine the extent of the new litter management practice, and (4) facilitate technology transfer to others in the poultry industry by developing technical materials to help proliferate the adoption of this innovative approach.