CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Poultry litter is a heterogeneous mixture that contains bedding materials, waste withantibiotics, dead skin, feed scraps, water, feathers, and the resulting microbiota frompoultry production cycle. It is an important organic resource generated in the north-eastregion of Santa Fe Province since animal primary production is one of the maineconomic activities in the region and in the whole country. However, the poormanagement conditions of poultry litter deteriorate local air, soil and water qualitieswhen erosion or surface runoff occurs. Thus, new eco-friendly developments must beproposed for more exigent requirements in the near future. The objective of this workwas to analyse the economic and energy aspects and the environmental impact of twodifferent waste treatment scenarios and compare them with a landfill and a base linescenario, where the raw material spread over the field as bio-fertilizer. The scenarioconstruction was based according to on-site data, lab-scale experiments previouslypublished and software databases. Processing scenarios proposed includes wastetransport, conditioning and treatment in a two-stage composting vermicompostingplant; and bio-fertilizer land application. The environmental study was carried out withlife cycle assessment. The energy study was carried out using cumulative energydemand methodology and the energy balance. Main results obtained suggest theimportance of the integrated agricultural waste treatment to address environmentalbenefits, especially with respect to the curren situation(base line). Furthermore, therewere no significant differences between two proposed alternatives of treatment.Economic and environmental results were contradictory when no long-term socioeconomicconsequences are considered.

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