Abstract

Poultry litter is being produced in large quantities due to the accelerating growth of the broiler industry in recent years, which implies a greater energy dependence and cost of these systems. This study seeks to evaluate the capacity of an anaerobic batch biodigester to produce biogas from poultry litter. To this end, three tests were conducted: 1^st: Poultry Litter + Water - [PL + W]1, 2^nd: Poultry Litter + Water - [PL + W]2. 3^rd: Description of treatments: Period of implementation: September 2013 to March 2014. T1 - Poultry Litter + Biofertilizer + Water, (PL+B+W) - of which: 28.25 kg of water + 28.25 kg of biofertilizer + 3.5 kg of litter. T2 - Poultry Litter + Biofertilizer (PL+B) - of which: 56.5 kg of biofertilizer + 3.5 kg of litter. T3 - Poultry Litter + Water (PL+W) - of which: 56.5 kg of water + 3.5 kg of litter. The results showed that the anaerobic biodigestion process was efficient in producing biogas in test 3, and that the three evaluated treatments produced different volumes of biogas, with the best treatment being the one that used a poultry litter associated with biofertilizer (T2 - PL+B), suggesting that the biofertilizer acted as a system that enabled the process, followed by the treatment that used poultry litter associated with biofertilizer and water (T1 - PL+B+W). The lowest values were observed in the third treatment, which used a mixture of poultry litter and water (T3 - PL+W).

Key words: Biogas, poultry, waste, biomass.