Identification of optimal poultry litter biorefinery location in Alabama through minimization of feedstock transportation cost

The estimated amount of poultry litter produced annually in Alabama is more than 1,250,000 tons. This large amount results in significant litter management challenges. Currently, poultry producers are facing many regulatory issues and challenges with respect to environmental impacts of litter management. Commercialization and implementation of environmentally benign biorefinery technologies have the potential to generate electric power (including on‐site power) and heat as well as transportation fuels, hydrogen, valuable chemicals, and fertilizer from poultry litter economically while addressing environmental problems caused by traditional disposal practices. In this study, poultry litter generated annually in northern and southern Alabama was documented on the basis of published literature, and transportation cost of poultry litter is minimized for both north and south Alabama by the selection of the best large‐scale biorefining facility location and optimal feedstock allocation using mathematical optimization techniques. The available portion of the existing poultry litter feedstock for a large scale biorefinery is found to be an important factor in determining transportation cost. Transportation cost increases several fold as the local feedstock availability for biorefining reduces from 100 to 50%. Optimum facility locations for both north and south Alabama were found within a 10 mile radius for three different poultry litter feedstock availabilities. © 2008 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 2008