POWER from poultry poo could soon give chicken meat producers a means of reducing their environmental footprint.

Poultry farmer and Nuffield scholar Rob Kestel is confident a large-scale pyrolysis plant proposed for Western Australia will provide an effective way of disposing chicken litter.

    AT A GLANCE:
  • WHO: Rob Kestrel
  • WHAT: Poultry
  • WHY: Poo power the big hope
  • WHERE: Gingin, WA
  • REPORT: John Parry

On a recent overseas study tour, Rob visited a pilot pyrolysis plant in the US using litter from chicken farms to produce electricity and bio-char.

"I wanted to see what other countries were doing in terms of environmental management," Rob said.

Pyrolysis is the process of burning organic matter such as poultry litter in the absence of oxygen to produce charcoal and a synthetic gas or syngas.

The proposed WA plant, to be built near Perth, in which Rob will be a shareholder, will be on a larger scale than the pilot plant he visited in the US state of Georgia.

It is expected to provide answers to the vexed issue of poultry waste management.

Litter from chicken-meat farms is commonly used as fertiliser, however it also harbours the biting stable fly (Stomoxys calcitrans), which attacks humans, domestic pets, horses and other livestock.

Rob said the impact of stable fly had been exacerbated by the urban sprawl and the growth in intensive livestock production.

"The use of raw poultry manure from chicken production will be banned in WA from 2010 to reduce fly populations," he said.

The pyrolysis plant is expected to be operating by 2011.

Rob said it would provide an effective way of disposing waste from his chicken enterprise at Gingin, north of Perth.

"It will use syngas generated from heating the chicken litter (50 per cent sawdust and 50 per cent droppings) to power a spark ignition gas engine, generating electricity," he said.

Rob said the by-product, known as bio-char, would provide a cleaner fertiliser and allow the plant's operater to engage in emissions trading.

"One of the best things about the bio-char is that it is carbon negative, actually capturing carbon from the atmosphere,"

The company behind the pyrolysis plant, Blair Fox Generation, is part-owned by members of Western Australia's poultry industry.

Rob also used his Nuffield scholarship to study management systems designed to reduce the impact of the chicken meat industry on urban populations.

"There are some innovations Australia could adopt from the UK, particularly related to air quality."

Air cleaning filters are used in the UK in addition to the exhaust systems used in Australia.

"The filters are expensive, they're about $2000 per fan, and a shed might have anything from 10 to 15 fans, although in the UK the cost is subsidised."

Rob said he was confident about the future of the chicken-meat industry in Australia, although he was shocked by the lowly status of growers in the US.

Farmers he visited in Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas and Florida were among the lowest ranked in the social and economic order.

Rob said this situation strengthened his belief that farmers should act as professionals and support industry groups to influence decision-making. He said the poultry producers faced increasingly stringent production standards and pressure to expand to improve efficiency.

However, declining returns had shelved his own plans to expand his operation from 175,000 to 400,000 birds.

Rob said environmental and food safety standards worldwide were getting tougher all the time.

The past two years in Australia had seen a greater focus on bio-security with some of the most stringent production requirements in the world now in place.

"Broiler producers are required to completely disinfect sheds between each six-week production period to remove all risk of salmonella or other bacterial infection in the birds," he said.

"All contact with other animals and birds domestic or wild must also be eliminated to prevent the spread of disease, such as avian influenza."