Sustainable operation of the network of chicken meat and egg producing and consuming industries via manure management

Thermodynamic analyses of a model network of chicken meat and eggs producing and consuming businesses was carried out to assess the sustainability of the production network under different manure management practices. The model network included a chicken farm, a restaurant, a pet food manufacturing plant, a vegetable garden, an olive garden, a grain field and a manure gasifier. Cumulative degree of perfection (CDP) was referred to as the numerical indicator of the sustainability. When chemical fertilizers were used in the system alone and the poultry manure was discarded, the CDP of the system was 0.66, when poultry manure was used alone to substitute the chemical fertilizers the CDP was 0.67. In the case when poultry manure was used together with bio-fertilizers, the CDP was 0.68. Gasification of the poultry manure increased the CDP to 0.98, and the highest CDP (1.01) was obtained when the poultry manure was gasified and microbial fertilizers were employed in the agriculture.