Co-Gasification of Woody Biomass and Chicken Manure

In this work, the potential of gasification as a means of disposal of chicken manure, by converting this animal waste at hen layer farms into clean energy, was studied. Gasification experiments were conducted in a downdraft gasifier and the quality of producer gas generated was analysed. While gasification of pure wood waste resulted in producer gas with a lower heating value (LHV) of about 4.68 MJ/Nm3, co-gasification of 30 wt% chicken manure and 70 wt% wood waste also generated producer gas of comparable quality, with LHV of 5.23 MJ/Nm3. From this observation, chicken manure could be a suitable feedstock for co-gasification with woody biomass. In the second part of the study, the solid residue generated – biochar – was used to study its potential in water treatment, in particular the removal of emerging contaminant, as biochar is known for its superb adsorptive properties. Our results demonstrated that artificial sweeteners were successfully removed by the biochar. By studying the relation of pH, zeta potential, and adsorption efficiency, it was also predicted that the mechanism governing the adsorptive removal was likely electrostatic interaction and specific interaction. Last but not least, a cost-benefit analysis was conducted using a Monte Carlo simulation model to evaluate the economic feasibility of deploying a gasification system in a hen layer farm from business point of view.