Sari Luostarinen, Luke: Manure management and emission control

© Natural Resources Institute Finland© Natural Resources Institute Finland
Sari Luostarinen
Principle Research Scientist, PhD, Adjunct Prof.
Presentation made in cooperation with
Kristiina Regina (Luke) and
Juha Grönroos (SYKE)
Manure management and
emission control

© Natural Resources Institute Finland
Land use (LULUCF) Agriculture
Agricultural GHG-emission sources
Energy
13.11.2017COMBATTING DAIRY METHANE SEMINAR

Figure 1
J. Dairy Sci. 97 :3231–3261
http://dx.doi.org/ 10.3168/jds.2013-7234
(c) The 5 countries and regions with the
largest livestock-associated enteric CH4
emissions on a million-metric-tonne (Mt)-
of-CO2e basis. Manure CH4 is emitted by
storage systems where anaerobic
fermentation occurs. Manure CH4 and
N2O can be from either ruminant or
nonruminant livestock operations [data
source: EPA (2011a)].

Agricultural GHG emissions in Finland 1990-2014
Tilastokeskus

Agricultural NH3 emissions in Finland 1980-2015
91% from
agriculture
90% of this
from
manure

Any mitigation measure may have effects on several emission
categories
13.11.2017
Cattle CH4
Manure CH4, N2O
Soil N2O
Mineral soil CO2
Organic soil CO2
Changes in
cattle feeding
Renewal rate of
cattle
Human diets
Biogas
Decrease
fertilization
New fertilizer
products
Decrease area
of organic soils
Increase grass
area
Controlled
drainage
Industry CO2
Energy CO2
COMBATTING DAIRY METHANE SEMINAR

Manure management: How and where to mitigate
FEEDING
EXCRETION
HOUSING
PROCESSING
STORAGESPREADING

Manure management: Feeding
Emissions from manure depend on what is excreted in
faeces and urine.
Planned and precise feeding can decrease excretion and
thus reduce the risk for emissions.

Finnish GHG inventory: dairy cattle population
diminishes, EF increases  Emissions reduce less
than expected based on animal numbers
13.11.2017 COMBATTING DAIRY METHANE SEMINAR
0,00
100,00
200,00
300,00
400,00
500,00
600,00
Emissions (kt CH4)
EF (kg CH4/head/year)
Population*1000

Nitrogen excretion of dairy cows increases despite
less animals -> ammonia emissions
Number of dairy cows
in Finland (statistics +
prediction)
Nitrogen excretion of
dairy cows in Finland
(values being
developed in Luke)
Grönroos 2014

Manure management: Housing
Rapid removal of manure and clean
surfaces can reduce nitrogen losses
• Example with ammonia:
• 20 % of total ammoniacal nitrogen
(TAN) in cattle slurry in loose housing
lost without abatement methods
• Mitigation efficiencies of different
actions:
• 10% rapid removal
• 30% cooling of slurry channels
• 60% flushing
• 85% air scrubbing

Manure management: Storage
Manure decomposes during storage.
• Open slurry tanks allow methane and
ammonia emissions.
• Open solid manure heeps produce
dinitrogen oxide and ammonia, potentially
also methane (if anaerobic pockets).
• Covering manure storages efficiently
reduce ammonia emissions (e.g. tight roof
95%), but may increase dinitrogen oxide
emissions.
Applies also to processed manure and
may be even more important then.

Manure management: Spreading
Manure spreading at the right time and dose
to decrease all emissions to air and waters
• Before sowing or to germinating crops
• Dose according to plant need and soil
characteristics
• Best application methods
• E.g. 55% of ammonia from cattle slurry is
lost with broadcast spreading
• Band spreading reduces emissions by
30% (arable land) or 35% (plant
covered land) and injection by 78%
• But: injection increases dinitrogen oxide
emissions
Important with processed manure products!

Mitigating N2O emissions from soils
• Optimizing N fertilization
– Amount
– Time (not in wet soil, not when the plant
cannot take up N)
– Place (precision farming)
• Avoiding soil compaction
• Drainage (in mineral soils)
• Catch crops and any methods to reduce
residual N after harvest
• Nitrification inhibitors
– May increase ammonia emissions and
accumulate in agricultural products
IPCC
Finnish studies
N2OemissionkgN/ha13.11.2017COMBATTING DAIRY METHANE SEMINAR

Manure increases the C content of soils
• On farm-scale, manure
ends up in fields anyway
– Animal or crop farm
• In national scale, only
materials originating
outside farms bring new C
to the system
Bolinder et al. 2010
Lots of
manure
No
manure

Manure management: Manure processing
Manure can be processed for several reasons:
• To change nutrient ratios
• To enable transportation further
• To recycle nutrients into new products to be
marketed separately
• To produce renewable energy
• To reduce emissions
Many processes available and under
development
• Separation
• Anaerobic digestion (biogas)
• Composting
• Pyrolysis, incineration
• Postprocessing for more concentration

Anaerobic Digestion
• Microbiological degradation of organic material into biogas
(CH4+CO2) under anaerobic conditions
– Different technologies available
• Manure an excellent raw material for AD
• Energy use of biogas avoids use of other energy sources
• Digestate as fertiliser OR post-processing into new fertiliser
products
• To efficiently mitigate emissions attention has to given to
– Quick removal of manure to biogas reactor
– Sufficiently long retention time under gas collection
– Minimisation of leakages
– Covered storages to avoid nitrogen losses
– Proper spreading methods and time

How much does anaerobic digestion reduce GHG emissions?
30 papers, 89 independent cases. The median reductions in emissions from the
baseline scenarios, according to operation units, are −43.2% for storage, −6.3%
for field application of slurries, −11.0% for offset of energy from fossil fuel, and
+0.4% for offset of inorganic fertilizers. The leaks from digesters are found to
significantly increase the emissions from baseline scenarios (median = +1.4%).
Environ. Sci. Technol., 2015, 49 (8), pp 5211–5219; DOI: 0.1021/acs.est.5b00018

Need to evaluate and choose the best methods
case-specifically using whole-chain approach
• Need to look beyond a single measure
• One effective measure on one emission may cause higher risk
for other emissions
– E.g. preservation of nitrogen in manure may increase emissions
during and after spreading, BUT it also enables the highest
potential for nitrogen recycling back to the crops
• Whole-chain approach
– Which combination of measures reduces the emissions the most
and makes the most use of the valuable nutrients and carbon?

Mitigation of
ammonia, nitrous
oxide and methane
emissions in slurry-
based systems
Global Change Biology
Volume 21, Issue 3, pages 1293-
1312, 3 DEC 2014 DOI:
10.1111/gcb.12767
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1
111/gcb.12767/full#gcb12767-fig-
0004

Mitigation of
ammonia, nitrous
oxide and
methane in solid
manure-based
systems
Global Change Biology
Volume 21, Issue 3, pages 1293-
1312, 3 DEC 2014 DOI:
10.1111/gcb.12767
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1
0.1111/gcb.12767/full#gcb12767-
fig-0005

Thank you!
sari.luostarinen@luke.fi

Sari Luostarinen, Luke: Manure management and emission control

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