Can Burning Chicken $#!* Save the Bay?

How Heating manure could lead to cleaner bay

Maryland chicken farms produce a substantial amount of phosphorous-rich chicken manure, which contributes to pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. One solution to the problem: Turn the poop into power.

A new grant program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will bring $850,000 to Eastern Shore chicken farmers to install technologically advanced systems to convert waste into green energy.

"We're trying to create a network of people who have experience (with) these technologies to provide assistance to farmers," said Amanda Bassow, director of the Chesapeake Program at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which is administering the USDA grant.

Yes, the Bay has lots of chicken farms, and chicken litter and other farm wastes are significant sources of nutrients that fuel eutrophication and anoxia.  Better disposal of the waste would be great forward.  And using it to generate power would help kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.  So how would it be done?

There are several ways farmers can convert manure to energy that can be used to power the farm or sold back to the electrical grid.

Combustion systems burn the manure, which produces steam to power a turbine that turns a generator to produce electricity.

Gasification systems heat the manure at temperatures up to 1,560 degrees in a low-oxygen system to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

And anaerobic digestion systems use microbes to break down the manure in an oxygen-free system to produce methane.

Gasification and combustion systems are the only viable option for Maryland chicken farmers because chicken manure is too dry to be used in anaerobic digestion systems.

Well, it's not like the Eastern Shore lacks for freshwater supplies, at least enough to help chicken shit rot; but let that go for now, combustion and gasification seem like reasonable enough options.  So why haven't such systems been adopted already, if you can solve your waste disposal problems and produce needed power at the same time?

But the high cost of installing waste-to-energy systems and the steep learning curve for farmers to learn the new technologies could prevent widespread adoption.

"At this point it has been difficult," Dubin said.

It's unclear how much it will cost to install combustion or gasification systems on Maryland chicken farms under the grant, officials said, because it depends on the size and location of the farm. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will decide in the next few months where to install the systems funded by the grant, Bassow said.

Another idea that has been proposed, and largely rejected on the Eastern Shore, is to build a power power plant specifically designed to burn poultry litter, and have farms sell their litter to the plant to burn as a fuel source.  A company called Fibrowatt tried to build such a plant in the 90s and was rebuffed largely by the environmental lobby.

But not everyone is in agreement on the necessity of these systems, Dubin said.

"We're seeing community disagreement over these projects as far as concerns about air quality, emissions, road traffic and other things of that nature," he said.

Now with the "Bay Diet" plan starting to bite, the shit-burning alternative is starting to look more attractive to all concerned.

So, should it be at the individual farm level, or at a regional manure burning power plant level?  Why not try both, and let the market decide which, if not both, actually works?