New Use For Poultry Manure That Could Save Waterways
DELMARVA - Allen Family Foods of Seaford has a new solution to a smelly problem. They will be the first poultry company on Delmarva to turn some of the area's 700,000 tons of manure a year into fuel.The aim is to keep that manure out of local waterways. Allen's new system will burn through about 12,000 tons of that litter a year. They will heat the litter into a steam to cook their chicken's inedible parts.
Michael Pilcher, Vice President of Operations at Allen's, said it will help farmers ease up on the amount of fertilizer they put on the ground. "Longterm, the growth of the industry on the Eastern Shore will be capped. If we don't have other places to go, there's only so much land and so much nitrogen and phosphorus we can put on the land."
Right now, farmers put chicken waste on their fields. Farmers from any of Delmarva's 5,100 chicken houses will be able to sell their litter to the Allen Plant. They hope to have it ready by next September.
Source:
26 October 2005
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