Blacksburg, Va.-Virginia Tech researchers are developing a portable pyrolysis reactor that turns turkey litter into diesel, gas, and fertilizer. Lead researcher Foster Agblevor said these self-contained transportable systems will allow poultry producers to process litter onsite rather than hauling it to separate centralized locations. Agblevor explained that pyrolysis vaporizes the litter, which is condensed to produce bio-oil, leaving the fertilizer to be recovered from the reactor. The remaining gas can be used to operate the reactor. Agblevor told Green Markets the fertilizer is a slow-release formulation that has NPK values lower than most of what’s currently on the market. “Basically our goal is to reduce pollution,” he explained, “so the fertilizer we have produced releases the NPK at a much lower rate.” The research team, which includes two Virginia Tech staff members and two graduate students, presented the results of their work during the 234th national meeting of the American Chemical Society recently in Boston.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain