TREATMENT AND RECYCLING ENGINEERING OF CHICKEN LITTER VIA THERMAL GASIFICATION PROCESS FOR WARMING POULTRY HOUSES

Poultry industry, in Egypt, encounters a lot of problems and diseases especially at winter season. A lot of chicks are dying due to low temperatures at night. Poultry house warming requires a lot of energy using petroleum delivers such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). In this period of each year, the higher demand on LPG cylinders raises the crisis of energy shortage in Egypt. Add-value principle was considered for solving the problem. Chicken litter as a by-product of poultry production process can be recycled and reused as an alternative source of energy where there is no transportation is required especially at remote areas. Poultry house, under investigation, is located at 12 Elezbah Elbaidah village, Elhamoul district, Kafr Elsheikh governorate. According to data collected about weather conditions, the environment is almost at steady state conditions in the two months of January and February of 2016 during the period from 12:00AM to 7:00AM at 12˚C and relative humidity of 70% to be suitable for experimentation. Poultry house was divided into two longitudinal sections called raceways. Thermal gasification technique is selected for biomass (chicken litter) energy conversion. Based on energy needs for warming process, the operation parameters and investigation variables of thermal gasification process were chosen. A continuous feeding fluidized bed reactor type with a catalyst sand bed was used. The system consists of gasifier reactor, chicken litter feeding section, cleaning section of two cyclones and gasifying agent supplying section.