Poultry litter digestion: how to turn poultry waste to wealth.

Poultry litter digestion: how to turn poultry waste to wealth.The anaerobic digestion of animal and organic wastes has long been known to reduce odors and to have the capability of CH4 production, with the subsequent conversion of the CH4 into electricity, bioCNG or heat. This has been accomplished on thousands of digesters utilizing cow, pig, and human wastes throughout the world. DVO has developed a digester system that uses the processed waste (digestate) after the digester, and after this digestate has gone through a solids separation system. The solids separation system reduces the total solids content of the digestate so that this effluent water is suitable for dilution of the high solids content poultry manure. The practice of solids separation is well-proven on DVO digesters.

How to turn chicken waste to clean energy.

How to turn chicken waste to clean energy. For years, poultry farmers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed have trucked manure to fields where it is used as a fertilizer. But a great concentration of animals means excess nutrient runoff that goes into streams and rivers and eventually ends up in the Chesapeake Bay. These nutrients increase the growth of algae and deplete oxygen that disrupts the aquatic ecosystem, making it difficult for marine life to survive.

 In an effort to reduce the nutrient load that drains from a 64,000-mile area into the Chesapeake Bay, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandates an annual cap restricting the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous that can enter each tributary. And many states are challenged to stay beneath the cap. Here’s how Bühler Aeroglide supported a project that reduces the nutrient load by refining chicken manure into valuable products at the same time.

To address nutrient load, one of Pennsylvania’s largest egg production businesses partnered with EnergyWorks North America in Annapolis, MD. The result is a bioenergy program that uses gasification technology to transform egg layer manure into renewable energy and mineral byproducts, processing manure produced by five million layer hens. 

A Bühler Aeroglide high performance conveyor dryer is a key part of the process, used to reduce the moisture content of the manure prior to its gasification.

Turning chicken poop and weeds into biofuel.

Turning chicken poop and weeds into biofuel. Chicken is a favorite, inexpensive meat across the globe. But the bird’s popularity results in a lot of waste that can pollute soil and water. One strategy for dealing with poultry poop is to turn it into biofuel, and now scientists have developed a way to do this by mixing the waste with another environmental scourge, an invasive weed that is affecting agriculture in Africa. Poultry sludge is sometimes turned into fertilizer, but recent trends in industrialized chicken farming have led to an increase in waste mismanagement and negative environmental impacts, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Droppings can contain nutrients, hormones, antibiotics and heavy metals and can wash into the soil and surface water. To deal with this problem, scientists have been working on ways to convert the waste into fuel. But alone, poultry droppings don’t transform well into biogas, so it’s mixed with plant materials such as switch grass. Samuel O. Dahunsi, Solomon U. Oranusi and colleagues wanted to see if they could combine the chicken waste with Tithonia diversifolia (Mexican sunflower), which was introduced to Africa as an ornamental plant decades ago and has become a major weed threatening agricultural production on the continent. The researchers developed a process to pre-treat chicken droppings, and then have anaerobic microbes digest the waste and Mexican sunflowers together. Eight kilograms of poultry waste and sunflowers produced more than 3 kg of biogas — more than enough fuel to drive the reaction and have some leftover for other uses such as powering a generator. Also, the researchers say that the residual solids from the process could be applied as fertilizer or soil conditioner.

Small brands ‘pushing the boundaries of manufacturing’.

Small brands ‘pushing the boundaries of manufacturing’.Chris Green is co-founder of Young Foodies, a community of the UK’s FMCG challenger brands. Young Foodies was launched just 12 months ago and already has 250 food and drink businesses on board. In this guest article, Green shares his thoughts on what it is that challenger brands are doing differently - and how it is enabling them to grow market share. more

Keys to Improve Digestibility of Corn Silage.

Keys to Improve Digestibility of Corn Silage. Why is breaking up the corn kernel so important to starch digestibility? Luiz Ferraretto, assistant professor of livestock nutrition at the University of Florida and speaker at the Silage for Beef 2018 Conference held in June in Nebraska, answered that question and offered additional advice to producers about how to improve the digestibility of their corn silage. The outside shell of a kernel that’s protecting everything inside is called the pericarp, and it's very hard. “If you throw an intact kernel into the rumen of a dairy or beef cow, it's not going to be digested because the pericarp inhibits digestion,” said Ferraretto. “The first thing you need to do is to eliminate the protection, and the way to do that is by breaking more kernels.”

Woman Dies After Dog Saliva Leads To Rare Infection.

Woman Dies After Dog Saliva Leads To Rare Infection. A Wisconsin woman died after her family says she contracted an extremely rare infection from a kind of bacteria found in some dogs’ saliva. Sharon Larson, 58, started feeling a little ill on June 20, the day after her puppy nipped her, her husband Daniel Larson told NBC News. The next day, she felt so weak that she couldn’t even hold a glass of water, and a local urgent care center sent her to the emergency room. Daniel Larson told local news outlet WTMJ that his wife was treated at the Wheaton Franciscan hospital in Franklin, Wisconsin. Ascension Wisconsin, the nonprofit group that oversees the hospital. At the hospital, Larson told NBC, doctors found that his wife’s kidneys were failing. On June 22, her blood tested positive for capnocytophaga canimorsus, common bacteria found in the mouths of dogs and cats. Though the bacteria are common, it’s extremely rare for them to cause serious illness. Doctors treated her with antibiotics, but she died the next afternoon. Sharon Larson’s case is especially curious because it happened the same month that Wisconsin resident Greg Manteufel contracted a severe capnocytophaga infection that led to the amputation of parts of his arms and legs. Manteufel fell ill about two miles from where Larson contracted her infection.

THE BIRDPRENEUR.

BIRDPRENEUR. Nigerian poultry production faces three main problems: lack of financial resources, reliance on old knowledge, and no connection to a market to sell its product. To help solve these issues Michael Iyanro founded BirdPreneur. Iyanro and his wife came up with the idea for their start-up one night watching television. “We were watching a television program and saw that the Nigerian population has grown to 198 million people,” says Iyanro. “We started thinking about what it will be like in 2050 and what the food requirements will be.” His childhood experiences of raising chickens with his mom led him to base the company on poultry. HOW IT WORKS The start-up not only educates Nigerian farmers on the technologies available locally, but also trains them on smart farming techniques, such as using resources more efficiently, to better grow food and make their farming practices effective. Individuals are identified through farmer associations in rural areas. Sign up