Energy Recovery of Animal Waste by Pyrolysis

Abstract

Animal excrements contain a considerable amount of energy, which is additionally enlarged by adding litter ma- terial. Therefore dried animal manures are traditional fuels in numerous countries, where no firewood is available. The thermal utilization of animal waste could therefore be an interesting, cost-effective, and above all complete solu- tion for the excess manure. Simultaneously it serves to tap a new energy-yielding source, which has up to now been only incompletely utilized by anaerobic digestion for methane generation. To obtain the heating values of fae- ces, urine, litter substrates and solid manures for further alternative forms of utilization, extensive laboratory inves- tigations were conducted with adiabatic calorimetry. With the exception of urine the substrates showed on average net calorific values of about 20,000 kJ kg . The study was-1 completed by the evaluation of the net calorific values of the pyrolysis products from the laboratory pyrolysis plant at the Institute for Sanitary Engineering, Water Quality and Solid Waste Management of Stuttgart University.