Potential for biogas production from the anaerobic digestion of chicken droppings in Morocco

Purpose The chicken droppings can have a negativeimpact on the environment and public health. In this work,we are interested in treating this waste by anaerobicdigestion and we estimate the national potential of greenenergy produced by anaerobic digestion and map the areasthat need digesters to improve national poultry farming.Methods The anaerobic digestion of this waste is performedin three steps. In the first step, the chicken droppingsare placed in a laboratory digester withoutpretreatment. In the second step, the droppings are placedin an industrial digester without pretreatment. In the thirdstep, a methanogenic inoculum is incubated with thechicken droppings in a batch digester. The biogas productionis measured by manometer, and the composition ofthis biogas is analyzed by gas chromatography.Results The chicken droppings without pretreatment generateda small amount of biogas (11.24 and 20 m3 for oneton of waste fresh) in the laboratory and in the prototypedigester. After pretreatment (heating and grinding), thiswaste produced a large quantity of biogas, on the order230,58 ml/gCOD, equivalent to 64.4 m3 for one ton offresh waste, with 60.2 % methane, 38.8 % carbon dioxideand 0 % hydrogen. This biogas production has a lowerheating value of 385 kWh for one ton of chicken droppings.Based on these results, our country has high potential forgreen energy (200 GWh) by transforming the droppings ofbroilers by anaerobic digestion.Conclusion In Morocco, the installation of biogas digestersin poultry units is an effective technique for thisindustry, because this waste is a potential energy source.