Heating Poultry Houses Using Renewable Energy

In broilers poultry house, fuel-based heating systems are commonly used to maintain the targeted temperatures for successful breeding of chicken. A considerable amount of fuel is consumed for this application, which leads to high running cost and contributes to the increase of air pollutant emissions. To investigate the economic feasibility of using solar energy as a substitute for the heating of poultry houses, a case study is conducted on a poultry broiler house located in El-Menia in Egypt. The location is selected based on the controversy foreseen due to the availability of high solar radiations versus the low fuel prices and absence of tax credits in Egypt. The case study includes the technical and economic study for a solar heating system (SHS) and the integration of biogas produced from chicken manure as an auxiliary source of heat. The heating demand is calculated hourly over a complete year using TRNSYS simulation tool. Accordingly, a SHS is designed to cover part of this demand besides a fuel based auxiliary source. The two main design variables of the SHS are the area of the solar collector and the volume of the storage tanks. An economical study of the SHS is carried out, where the net present value is calculated. The calculation is performed using the Egyptian and international fuel price.

Keywords: Bio-digesters, Biogas, Case study, Chicken manure, Economic study, Egypt, Energy, Fuel saver, Heating, Infiltration, Latent heat storage, Life cycle savings, Net present value, PCM, Poultry, Renewable, Simulation, Solar, Solar collectors, Storage tanks, Target temperature, TRNSYS.