Using Excess Poultry Litter to Generate Energy: An Analysis of the Impediments and Feasibility in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

In its 2005 Manure Strategy, the Chesapeake Bay Program recognized the significance of controlling nutrient loads from manure in order to restore the Chesapeake Bay. An important component of an overall nutrient management strategy for agricultural lands, therefore, involves finding alternative uses for excess manure. The purpose of this report was to analyze the feasibility of using poultry litter for energy in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Using excess manure to feed energy generation systems in this region could potentially result in a reduced nutrient load to the Bay, thus improving water quality. This report explores technologies that could potentially be used to convert poultry litter into energy and identifies impediments and incentives that a litter-to-energy project may encounter. The findings of this report suggest that litter-to-energy systems are, for the most part, technologically feasible; however, there are other challenges that must be overcome to make these systems a viable option in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, including high system cost and the issue of litter availability. In addition, there are still a number of variables that need to be better understood in order to determine whether litter-to-energy systems are truly feasible in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.