Evaluation of manure management and treatment technology for environmental protection and sustainable livestock farming in Europe (LIFE-MANEV)

Project objectives:

• To demonstrate that both the use of treatment technology and an environmentally correct management scheme of pig manure can contribute to a reduction of GHG emissions and simultaneously improve the farmers’ sustainability.
• To improve environmental protection and quality by increasing the use of manure treatment technology in different Livestock saturated or surplus zones of Europe
• To improve the sustainability of pig farming sector by the use of manure treatment technology in different zones of Europe, which are saturated or have a surplus in manure production.
• To unify criteria for the evaluation of different manure treatment technology systems and management schemes (mainly for the pig sector).
• To develop a common protocol for all the different European zones, which defines the evaluation of manure treatment technology and management schemes taking into account environmental technological, energetic, economic, legal and health factors.
• To develop a decision supporting and planning tool to evaluate different manure treatment and management strategies for being used by institutions, associations, administration and also provides information for individual farms.
• To determine the optimisation potential of evaluated treatment systems and management schemes.
• To define the fertilising properties of directly applied manure and of every treatment effluent with the aim to get a real value in the market.
• To balance the know-how related with the treatment technologies and management methods, as well as its own strengthens and weakness, within the different countries and areas in Europe
• To disseminate the knowledge about different manure treatment methods and technologies among farmers and all stakeholders.
  

Actions and means involved:

In order to demonstrate the contribution on the reduction of the GHG emissions and to improve the farmers’ sustainability, 13 different treatment technologies and manure management schemes (full-scale), located in 8 different surplus zones that belong to 4 different countries, will be evaluated among Europe.

The evaluation will be carried out by means of a COMMON PROTOCOL that will be elaborated among all beneficiaries. This protocol will unify criteria and indicators regarding environmental, technical, energetic, economic, legal and health aspects for all venues.

Every partner will MONITOR AND EVALUATE its treatment plants and manure management schemes according to the common protocol. As a result of this analysis it will get the Life Cycle Assessment of every scheme, which includes the three pollution potentials (i) Global warning (ii) Eutrophication, (iii) Acidification, as well as energy balancing, economic aspects.

Among the proposed systems to be evaluated we find: 9 that deal with anaerobic digestion, of which one scenario will develop and evaluate an innovative prototype digester; 3 different separation devices, 6 different Biological Nitrogen removal processes, of which one is based on an innovative process; 2 scenarios will employ a innovative Nitrogen recovery technology (stripping); 2 thorough demonstration and analysis of composting technology; 1 direct use of farm manure as organic fertilizer. Given the fact that all manners of management and treatment technology use necessarily will apply either raw manure or treatment effluents on (mostly) arable land, it is essential to analyse the role of soil chemistry, as it will be specifically by one beneficiary.

The results from the evaluation will be fed into a SOFTWARE TOOL, which will be developed during this project. Such tool is conceived for decision supporting and planning in order to: 

• Determine and predict the overall environmental benefit of increased uptake of different technologies, specifically the implications on reduction of GHG emissions.
• Analyse farm situation economically and geographically and thus recommend the best management package.- Test and determine the maximum tolerable investment and operation costs in treatment technology for European farms.
• Test and determine the likely impact of possible regulation on the uptake of different technologies.

The evaluated systems can only be understood by knowing the pig manure management schemes which they are part of. Therefore, during this demonstration period, special attention is given to SOCIAL ASPECTS, such as the farmer’s receptiveness to manure treatment options as a function of (i) costs, (ii) meeting regulation and (iii) enabling/assuring sustainability. 

In two of the participating regions where very little use of treatment technology of pig manure is found (Warmia-Mazury Voivodeship (Poland) and Murcia (Spain)), the DEVELOPED SOFTWARE TOOL WILL BE SIMULATED in order to demonstrate its use as a planning and decision making tool. In consequence, the use of the tool in these two scenarios is expected to reveal/show effect of environmental protection by the use of treatment technologies and enhanced management schemes of pig manure.

In order to transfer the results obtained in this project within Europe, among the agents involved directly or indirectly in the manure management (livestock farmers, land farmers, local and regional government, technicians, researches, …) it will be carried out different DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES in every scenario, including: 

•  Website in different languages.
•  Farm, technical and scientific publications.
•  Regional and local seminars and conferences.
• Publication of a guidebook of the proposed technologies, scientific basis, technical requirements, economical/environmental balance, etc.
• Design, edition and dissemination of brochures, posters and DVD’s.

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Expediente: LIFE09 ENV/ES/000453

Entidades participantes: Sodemasa (Aragón), ITACyL (Castilla-León), CEBAS-CSIC (Murcia), GIRO Centro tecnológico (Catalunya), Aarhus University (Dinamarca), UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO (Italia) CENTRO RICERCHE PRODUZIONI ANIMALI – CRPA SPA (ITALIA), Urząd Marszałkowski Województwa Warmińsko-Mazurskiego w Olsztynie (Polonia)

Investigador principal: Cordinador proyecto: Arturo Dauden (SODEMASA). En el GIRO: August Bonmatí.