Recent regulations that enforce the European Nitrates Directive (91/676/CEE)
state new limits for the agricultural management of manure. The European Union has defined a
big portion of the Po valley, northern Italy, as vulnerable area, with a consequent new limit for
agricultural utilization of manure of 170 kgN/hectare per year instead of the previous 340
kgN/hectare. This new regulations, hence, determine significant difficulties for farmers, who
need either to double the available land, or to reduce the production of manure (reduce the
animal units of farm), or to adopt technologies that enable to reduce N concentration in manure.
This situation is even more problematic if we consider that most of Italian poultry farms are
located in Veneto and Emilia-Romagna Regions, in the heart of the Po valley, where only
limited land is available for agricultural utilization. Furhtermore, most poultry farms do not have
connection with agriculture. From this optic manure is loosing it’s natural connotation of a
resource, for it’s fertilizing quality, but is becoming a problem, a waste to get rid of. Thermal
treatment represents a valid option to face this problematic situation: the process allow to
produce energy, with significant income due to National incentives, and to reduce both the
volume of the material to be managed, and nitrogen concentration. The characteristics of a
1MWe plant will be discussed in this paper.
