Impact of rice husk as litter material on biogas generation from chicken manure

Abstract

Last decades energy required in almost all fields of everyday life is provided mostly by expensive imported energy sources in Turkey. In order to meet the increasing demand of energy, it is compulsory to find alternative sources. Research activities on the biogas production by using animal and agricultural residues are becoming attractive research area due to abundant availability of them in Turkey. The increase in production and concentration of intensive livestock activities are producing an important amount of organic wastes. Poor management of these wastes could cause serious environmental and health problems. It is necessary to implement proper management options to minimize the risks. In addition, agriculture industry that generates a big amount of wastes (rice husk, straw, grass) is also producing a surplus of residues that is necessary to treat. In Turkey there are approximately 17.000 poultry farms, with a total capacity reaching 235 million poultry. According to these statistics, in Turkey, poultry manure potential is approximately 5.5 million ton/year. In this study the impact of different amount of rice husk as a litter material on biogas generation from anaerobic digestion of chicken manure was investigated using batch reactors. For this purpose chicken manure and different amount of rice husk were mixed and digestate under mesophilic anaerobic conditions. Within the scope of this study, it was found that cumulative biogas generation of the reactors was affected negatively with increasing concentrations of rice husk. On the other hand, composition of the biogas, in terms of methane and carbon dioxide contents, methane concentration in biogas increased with increasing RH ratio.