ANAEROBIC DIGESTION AND CO-DIGESTION OF POULTRY LITTER SUBMITTED TO DIFFERENT REUSES

ABSTRACT Considering the constant increase in the waste generation from poultry and pigs’ husbandries, the main contributions of this study were to verify the potential of biogas production through the anaerobic digestion and co-digestion of the residues generated by these two activities, as well as to highlight the recovery of the nutrients contained in the obtained digestate. The wastes used were poultry litters after six, seven and eight production lots, as well as the sifted wastewater from one Piglets Producer Unit (PPU). Higher biogas production (p <0.05) was observed in the treatments in which anaerobic codigestion was used with the swine wastewater (SW): 0.179; 0.158 and 0.117 m3 per kg of total solids (TS) added for poultry litters with six, seven and eight lots, respectively. It was concluded that the anaerobic co-digestion between the poultry litter and sifted swine wastewater is the best option for energy and nutrient recycling. No positive relationships were observed in the increase in the number of reuses of litter in the production of biogas and in the concentration of nutrients in the digestate.