A poultry farmer in West Virginia has adopted an innovative approach to heating his hatchery, managing poultry litter and possibly reducing greenhouse gases, according to USA Today. Josh Frye heats his facility with a special incinerator that operates on chicken manure.
Upon combustion, the chicken manure is transformed into biochar, a high-carbon substance that serves as a high-quality fertilizer. Unlike most organic fertilizers, which produce carbon dioxide gas as they break down, biochar is slow to decompose and stores carbon in the soil for up to 1,000 years, according to Johannes Lehmann, a soil scientist at Cornell University.
Frye’s machine, manufactured by Coaltec Energy, can produce up to 9,000 pounds of biochar a day, and the highest-quality biochar can command a price of $1 per pound. So far, Frye has sold just $1,000 worth of biochar on a trial basis, but plans to incorporate biochar sales into his business plan. Soon, he told the newspaper, “"the chicken poop could be worth more than the chickens themselves."
He also says the machine saves him $30,000 a year in propane heating costs.
As new technology, the incinerator came with a high price tag of $1M. Frye received grants and low-interest loans from federal and state agencies to cover the capital outlay.
Also known as a gasifier—equipment that converts carbon-containing materials into a fuel similar to natural gas—the machine produces no odor or smoke as it burns the chicken manure, USA Today reported.
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