When we last received the straight poop on chicken manure to energy, we learned “while it ain’t pretty, chicken poop has potential as an energy source.” Around the globe large-scale poultry operations are taking a second look.
Montreal Treehugger Kimberley D. Mok sends word on the latest development of large-scale biomass energy production. She notes that “the Netherlands is now home to the world’s largest biomass power plant running only on – yep, you got it – chicken manure.”
"Power to the people" is a matter of scale. The Dutch project exceeds other projects reported by Treehuggers in:
- California,
- China,
- India and
- Uganda.
Not only is it an alternative source of energy, but also a strategy for addressing the environmental impact of chicken droppings. Such an approach is beneficial since manure is a source of methane and methane is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere. It makes you want to ask what are the positions of the candidates for U.S. president on the chicken shit issue, eh?
“Located in Moerdijk, Zeeland and running at a capacity of 36.5 megawatts, the plant will generate more than 270 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year enough to power approximately 90,000 households.”
As Dutch agriculture minister Gerda Verburg announced during the plant’s opening last week, the plant will convert one third of the country’s total 1.2 million tons of poultry waste produced per year, or 440,000 tons.
The Dutch multi-utility company Delta, which constructed and operates the 150 million euro plant, is calling it a carbon-neutral effort as it will preclude the emission of greenhouse gases such as CO2 and methane from chicken waste, which is usually laid out as fertilizer over vast tracts of farmland.
Previously, over 800,000 tons of Dutch poultry poop had to be processed abroad at a high cost. Now, the remaining ashes of the manure will be sold as a fertilizer rich in phosphorus and kalium.
Furthermore, the Dutch cooperative "Duurzame Energieproductie Pluimveehouderij DEP" Sustainable Energy Production in the Poultry Sector gives its 629 poultry farming members a eco-friendly and profitable waste management option by allowing them to provide chicken waste to the power plant.
While the Dutch project is an example of pyrolysis, this blog leans toward centralized co-digestion of animal manure slurries that yields biogas then used for co-generation. AG readers should note that all 4 of the previous Treehugger examples were biogas projects.
