Engineers work to make poultry waste more useful
By STEPHANIE SCHUPSKA

Two and a half pounds of litter that's about how much one chicken produces in its lifetime. A team of University of Georgia scientists is working to turn the poultry state's waste litter into a valuable alternative fuel product.

That's good news in Georgia, where chickens, specifically broilers, rank No. 1 in the state's agriculture, with a leaving-the-farm value of almost $4 billion. Poultry litter is mostly manure mixed with a bedding material such as wood shavings.

Two and a half pounds of litter per broiler is 2.5 pounds of by-product waiting to be converted into something usable, said Jimmy Palmer of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. With funding from an EPA grant, UGA researchers are searching for ways to add value to poultry waste.

"This will help us collectively deal with environmental issues of growing agriculture," said Palmer, an EPA regional administrator.

"A waste is a terrible thing to mind," he said, twisting a common phrase. "We're looking for better ways to deal with waste."

Through a process called fractionation, the UGA researchers plan to produce two types of materials from the poultry litter, separating the fine and coarse parts, said Mark Risse, a UGA Cooperative Extension engineer and member of the research team.

The scientists form the fine, nutrient rich material into pellets for fertilizer. Because the processed fertilizer pellets would allow a slower release of nutrients into the soil, pollution from pathogens and nutrients in the poultry litter would be reduced.

"Most poultry litter is currently being directly land-applied as fertilizer," said K.C. Das, coordinator of the UGA Biorefinery. "It makes sense to a point. But in north Georgia, there's not enough land to spread the litter. Through this process, we're producing a better energy product as well as a better fertilizer."

The research team puts the coarse, energy-rich poultry litter material through an intense heating process called pyrolysis to create char and bio-oil. The char can be used anywhere charcoal is used. Bio-oil can be refined further and used as diesel like fuel.

UGA engineers say developing a cheap source of energy from poultry litter would provide a cleaner source of energy, helping the state grow in an economically and environmentally sustainable way. They estimate that in the United States, using poultry litter as fuel could save 283 million gallons of fossil fuel.

"Two or three companies are looking at Georgia right now," Risse said. "They're looking at pelleting litter for fertilizer. There's a very real opportunity for research that can be used not 10 years from now, but now."

"A lot more is said than usually done, and we're about to do it," Palmer said of the project.

Besides Risse and Das, the UGA research team includes Cooperative Extension engineer John Worley, professor Sid Thompson and graduate student Kaushlendra Singh.

The project builds on work Thompson did 15 years ago and had to shelve due to a lack of application at the time. Now, with the demand for alternative fuels increasing, his halted research can continue.

The project team is in the process of showing they can break up poultry litter into two parts and use both. The researchers will also have to determine whether the processes should be done at centralized locations across the state or at individual farms.

"Poultry litter represents two times the energy consumption on a farm," Das said. "You have everything you need to produce energy on the farm already."

(Stephanie Schupska is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)

The FAST START Program is now on the fast track in Wilkes County.

Earlier this summer, the Toombs Judicial Circuit, which includes the counties of Wilkes, Lincoln, Glascock, McDuffie, Taliaferro, and Warren, accepted $75,000 from the Children and Youth Coordinating Council (CYCC) to establish a FAST START Program in the circuit.

The funds were made available through the CYCC's Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention/Treatment Grant Program.

FAST START is an acronym for "Finding Alternatives for Safety and Treatment - Stabilization Through Assessment and Recommendations for Treatment." Its mission is to implement a "community-based risk reduction program for the purpose of utilizing available community resources in assessment and intervention in cases of delinquency, deprivation, or unruliness."

According to Britt Hammond, juvenile court judge for the Toombs Judicial Circuit, "This program is designed give all community-based public and private child service providers an opportunity to come to the table as a panel and address the problems of specific juveniles in the circuit using parental and community resources. In particular, we will evaluate juvenile cases to determine the root causes of the deprivation, delinquency, and/or unruliness and then recommend community-based treatment alternatives to the court to alleviate or eliminate those problems.

"We plan to make use of all available community resources, including citizen volunteers, to intervene in the lives of these children at the earliest possible opportunity," the judge continued. "The average age of a juvenile delinquent is 14.7 years which means that by then, it's probably too late. We want to get to them earlier."

Adherence to the treatment plan will be enforced by the court.

The specific goals of the FAST START Program are:

To reduce truancy.

To reduce the incidence of teen pregnancy.

To lower the high school dropout rate.

To deter delinquent behavior.

In order to make all of this happen, the circuit has hired Lincoln County resident Colleen LeRoy as the program coordinator. Before beginning her duties with FAST START, she was active in the circuit as an intensive supervision probation officer for the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice.

During the past few weeks, LeRoy has been establishing the FAST START panel for Wilkes County. The panel is comprised of:

Wilkes County High School Andrew Jackson, Principal; Wilkes County Middle School Bill Pendry, Principal;

Washington Police Dept. Theodosia Glenn, Assistant Chief;

Wilkes County Community Partnership: Carolyn Reynolds, Coordinator, and Horace Jordan Dot Jordan; Wilkes County DFCS Sharon Williamson, Director;Jeanie Collins, Child Protective Services Supervisor

Wilkes County Mental Health Services Brenda Callaway, Director;

East Central Georgia Consortium Angela Collins, Youth Program Coordinator;

Georgia Dept. of Juvenile Justice Sherry Holiman, Intake Officer;

Toombs Judicial Circuit Public Defender Sara Meyers, Assistant Public Defender; Toombs Judicial Circuit District Attorney Sarah Peacock, Assistant District Attorney.

The panel for each county will hold regular meetings once a month and at other times, as needed. The group will offer confidentiality protection for participating agencies, expanded communication between child service agencies, and the coordination of services among participating agencies.

In her remarks, LeRoy said, "It is my hope and belief that the program will positively impact the lives of the children in our circuit and their families by providing them with a community collaborative support team. The team will take a handson approach by independently investigating each child's case and then recommending communitybased support to alleviate the specific problems as soon as possible. We want to positively impact children's lives by providing stability, support, and a chance to overcome certain disadvantages."

She went on to report that the number of juvenile cases filed in the Toombs Judicial Circuit climbed from 598 in 2004 to 791 in 2005. "We've already reached the 500 mark for 2006," LeRoy added. "With the caseload getting heavier each year, there is a definite need for a program like FAST START in this area."

This marks the first time the state has awarded a grant for this type of program to a rural area.

The grant can be renewed for up to three years. Lincoln County is serving as the fiscal agent for the state grant.

The Children and Youth Coordinating Council assists local communities in preventing juvenile delinquency through the provision of state and federal grants, technical assistance, the training and education of service providers, and juvenile justice law projects.

The agency monitors juvenile courts, detention centers, and other facilities for compliance with federal regulations and state laws related to the detention of juveniles. It also tracks and monitors state and federal legislation and programs related to children and youth.

In addition, the council administers the state's Title V, Section 510 Abstinence Until Marriage Block Grant Program.

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