Implications of poultry litter usage for electricity production

Abstract

Poultry litter has the potential to cause water quality problems if it is not applied properly to the land as a crop nutrient. Based on the data available from a survey of Louisiana poultry producers, we find that it is not cost effective to transport poultry litter farther than 38.6 km from the production facilities for crop nutrient purposes. This limited breakeven distance restricts the movement of poultry litter and points to a need to identify an alternative disposal method. We review common methods of producing electricity from poultry litter. We identify the minimum cost solution for assigning poultry litter when one large or three small electric reactors are chosen to be built for electricity production in the poultry production region. We calculate the cost-return analysis of building electric reactors and expand it to find the economic impact of starting such electric reactors to the local and regional economies.

Keywords: Assignment problem; Breakeven transportation distance; Impact analysis; Poultry litter-electricity production feasibility.