Abstract—This work presents the experimental results obtained at a pilot plant which works with a slow, wet and catalytic pyrolysis process of dry fowl manure. This kind of process mainly consists in the cracking of the organic matrix and in the following reaction of carbon with water, which is either already contained in the organic feed or added, to produce carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Reactions are conducted in a rotating reactor maintained at a temperature of 500°C; the required amount of water is about 30% of the dry organic feed. This operation yields a gas containing about 59% (on a volume basis) of hydrogen, 17% of carbon monoxide and other products such as light hydrocarbons (methane, ethane, propane) and carbon monoxide in lesser amounts. The gas coming from the reactor can be used to produce not only electricity, through internal combustion engines, but also heat, through direct combustion in industrial boilers. Furthermore, as the produced gas is devoid of both solid particles and pollutant species (such as dioxins and furans), the process (in this case applied to fowl manure) can be considered as an optimal way for the disposal and the contemporary energetic valorization of organic materials, in such a way that is not damaging to the environment. Keywords—Brushwood, fowl manure, kenaf, pilot plant, pyrolysis, pyrolysis gas. I. INTRODUCTION HE disposal of large amounts of materials, especially organic ones such as urban and industrial wastes, and the valorization of marginal agricultural lands are two extremely important requirements in technologically developed societies. Besides this, further technological advancement can only be made possible by increasing the availability of low cost energy and reducing environmental impact and carbon dioxide emission into the atmosphere. In this work we present the results from an experimental- demonstrative plant for the disposal of waste organic materials of any origin with the contemporaneous production of both electrical and thermal energy and with low pollutant emissions; the proposed process is a kind of pyrolysis named “slow, wet and catalytic”. Although this was specifically a kind of process characterized by extremely innovative elements, which can be traced back to the adjectives “slow”, “wet” and “catalytic”, pyrolysis has long been the subject of different studies and applications, even recent ones [1]–[4], R. Carta is with the University of Cagliari, Department of Mechanical Chemical and Materials Engineering, Cagliari, Italy (phone: +39-070-675- 5068; fax: +39-070-675-5067; e-mail: renzo.carta@dimcm.unica.it). M. Cruccu is with Maim Engineering S.r.l., Cagliari, Italy (e-mail: mario.cruccu@maim.it). F. Desogus is with the University of Cagliari, Department of Mechanical Chemical and Materials Engineering, Cagliari, Italy (phone: +39-070-675- 5070; fax: +39-070-675-5067; e-mail: f.desogus@dimcm.unica.it). considering the wide variety of materials that can be used and the great number of the possible combinations of the process parameters [5]. The demonstrative plant, designed by Maim Engineering srl company and presented in a previous article [6], operates near Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy). It can treat up to 20 kg/h of organic materials producing a fuel gas mainly composed of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and light hydrocarbons. The produced gas can be burned without any damage to the environment, realizing a significant valorization of any organic material, such as fowl manure, which is discussed here. The size of the available structure does not allow industrial use, because of the small amount of material that can be treated, nevertheless it is fundamental for the demonstration of the potential of the proposed process; furthermore, it is used for experimental purposes in connection with our laboratory equipment, in order to better define all the process parameters (kinetic, fluid dynamic, etc.) necessary to design similar larger sized plants. II. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCESS The slow, wet and catalytic pyrolysis process [7] consists in the cracking reactions of the organic bonds, followed mainly by the reaction of organic carbon with water: C+H 2 O→CO+H 2 . Secondary reactions also occur, which cause the formation of CO 2 , light hydrocarbons and other components, depending on the particular composition of the fed organic material and on the process parameters. As the reactions that happen during the initial phase of the pyrolysis process are essentially cracking reactions of the biomass, some specific components are added in order to catalyze these reactions. The result is an increase in the amount of obtained pyrolysis gas to the detriment of liquid and solid products; the composition in terms of hydrogen and carbon monoxide is also increased. The organic material used to feed the plant on this occasion was fowl manure. This choice was guided by the great availability of such a kind of waste material in the local region; furthermore, its disposal is difficult and expensive. The dry material is fed to the reactor (3 in Fig. 1 and 2) by means of a hopper (1 in Fig. 1 and 2) and an Archimedean screw (2 in Fig. 1 and 2), tapered at its end in order to reduce the drag of external air into the reactor as much as possible. As well as the dry fowl manure, water is also fed to reach 30% (in weight) of the dry fowl manure. A heating jacket (4 in Fig. 1 and 2), was installed coaxial to the reactor and a hot gas, burned at about 700°C, flows in the interspace between the reactor and heating Renzo Carta, Mario Cruccu, and Francesco Desogus Slow, Wet and Catalytic Pyrolysis of Fowl Manure T World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Environmental and Ecological Engineering Vol:6, No:12, 2012 800 International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 6(12) 2012 scholar.waset.org/1307-6892/10223 International Science Index, Environmental and Ecological Engineering Vol:6, No:12, 2012 waset.org/Publication/10223