Pig waste being used to power homes, farms

Organic waste from pigs on a farm in Leicestershire, UK, is helping to power an estimated 700 homes and reduce landfill waste by 18,000 metric tons each year. The pig waste, combined with other food waste, is being used to produce biogas capable of generating the equivalent of around 1.2 megawatts of electricity. The electricity is being exported onto the local energy grid used to power homes, as well as the pig farming facility.
The technology used to convert waste into energy was designed and built by a UK company, PROjEN BioEnergy, who were honored earlier this month by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) at its annual award ceremony to celebrate innovation and excellence in chemical engineering across the world.
Using a process called anaerobic digestion - where natural bacteria are used to treat biodegradable materials - PROjEN's work has resulted in other major benefits. The farm's carbon emissions have been reduced by offsetting electricity and heating consumption. Waste and by-products normally destined for landfill and incineration has been avoided.
In addition, the process produces a high quality pasteurised fertiliser, which is weed free and rich in nitrogen. Around 96 million tonnes¹ of farm manures are applied to agricultural land each year in the UK, with strict controls. Pasteurisation helps to minimise the risks of food-borne diseases such as listeria and salmonella.
IChemE's chief executive, David Brown, said: "The work of organisations like PROjEN shows the potential of chemical engineering to transform discarded waste into valuable commodities to benefit industries like farming.
"The benefits from just one farm are impressive. With an estimated four million pigs² in the UK alone, producing millions of tonnes of by-products each year, the potential for energy production, from a sustainable source, is significant".
The role of chemical engineers in the energy sector is explored in IChemE's latest technical strategy, Chemical Engineering Matters. The strategy also includes actions chemical engineers are taking on other global challenges including health, water and food.

FAO releases ‘Tackling climate change through livestock’ study

The FAO's new report "Tackling climate change through livestock," provides updated estimates of the global pig sector's contribution to global warming, as well as potential measures to reduce emissions.
This new report, which updates its 2006 report "Livestock's long shadow," concluded that GHG emissions by the livestock sector could be reduced by up to 30 percent through a wider adoption of existing best practices and technologies in feeding, health and husbandry, and manure management.
In pig production, precision feeding, breeding, and better animal health care are areas to reduce emissions due to feed production and manure management. Some highlights include:

• Pig supply chains are estimated to produce 0.7 gigatonnes CO2-eq per year, approximately 9 percent of the livestock sector's emissions.
• Feed production contributes 60 percent of the emissions arising from global pig supply chains, and manure storage/processing 27 percent. The remaining 13 percent is from a combination of post-farm processing and transport of meat 6 percent, direct and indirect energy use in livestock production three percent and enteric fermentation 3 percent.
• For feed emissions, N2O resulting from the application of synthetic and organic fertilizers in feed crop production accounts for 17 percent of total pig emissions, while CO2 from the use of energy in field operations, crop transport and processing, and the manufacture of fertilizer and synthetic feed materials accounts for 27 percent. An additional 13 percent of the total emissions are from land-use change driven by increased demand for feed crops. 
There is a significant potential to reduce emission from the livestock sector, across all species, systems and regions, with the greatest potential for cuts found in low productivity ruminant livestock systems in South Asia, Latin America and Africa.
The potential for achieving emissions reductions are mainly based on technologies and practices that improve production efficiency at animal and herd levels. Efficiency gains could therefore be achieved by improving practices, and do not necessitate changing production systems.

Poultry thresholds remain unchanged after EU emissions review

The European Commission has decided not to amend thresholds for poultry and pigs or to include cattle in the Industrial Emissions Directive. However, there are fears that measures on manure spreading could still impact on the livestock industry.
The directive, published in 2010, brought together seven previous directives and came out of a review of industrial emissions legislation, aiming to ensure clearer environmental benefits, the removal of ambiguities, promotion of cost effectiveness and encouragement of technical innovation.
At the time of publication, it was envisioned that some topics relevant to the directive would be reviewed. These included review of the thresholds for poultry, mixed pig and poultry farms and whether there was a need to control emissions from cattle, but these will not now be implemented.
Despite leaving the thresholds unchanged, the report states that the European Commission will be further investigating whether EU measures should be introduced for manure spreading and for combustion plants less than 50 megawatts.
Dr. Diane Mitchell, chief environmental advisor with the UK's National Farmers Union, commented: "This is a great relief for the livestock sector and we are pleased to see that commonsense has prevailed. The National Farmers Union has remained convinced that the directive is ill-suited to the agriculture sector and argued that the costs of extending the scope of the directive would have far outweighed the environmental benefits."

Cold storage company uses trucks to decrease carbon footprint

Yearsley Logistics, a United Kingdom logistics service provider for the frozen food sector, has taken delivery of its first Urban Trailers to further reduce the carbon footprint from its nationwide operation.
The trailers facilitate increased load fill, and therefore reduction of the number of journeys required. They enhance the maneuverability of the operation within town centers while achieving a higher payload. They also carry a new logo as part of the recent corporate rebranding, which was exclusively showcased at the 2013 Commercial Vehicle Show.
The effectiveness and efficiency of the vehicles will be monitored from three of Yearsley Logistics UK sites — Heywood, Hams Hall and Gillingham — over a three-month period and will determine the future rollout of more trailers within the fleet.
Yearsley Logistics Operations Director Mark Haslam said, "These new additions represent our next steps in an on-going strategy of replacing vehicles to ensure they remain as environmentally friendly and cost efficient as possible. The Urban's benefits in increased payload and cube are clear but the varied profile of Yearsley's food service customers and the specific access restrictions of urban areas mean we are trialing the vehicles across the UK. If successful, we will look to purchase more."
Yearsley Logistics have made a total $3.5 million investment in solar panels at seven of its 13 cold stores over the past two years as it looks to increase the amount of energy it obtains from renewable sources. Other recent green moves include the implementation of management systems for reducing waste road miles and the company has installed energy efficient LED lighting and doors.

US pig farmers reducing carbon footprint, says study

US pig producers have made huge improvements in environmental management over the last 50 years, according to "A 50-Year Comparison of the Carbon Footprint and Resource Use of the U.S. Swine Herd: 1959 - 2009," study. The research found that modern pork production methods have led to a 35 percent decrease in the carbon footprint, a 41 percent reduction in water usage and a 78 percent drop in land needed to produce a pound of pork compared to a 1959 baseline.
"The study underscores just how much improvement farmers have made over the past half century," said Garth Boyd, Ph.D. The environmental researcher and former university professor led a team of university and industry scientists in conducting the Checkoff-funded study. "The pork industry has been very successful in significantly reducing its environmental impact and its use of natural resources by nearly 50 percent across the board per pound of pork produced, which is quite an accomplishment."
Several on-farm practices have helped improve U.S. pork's overall environmental sustainability. Boyd said these were primarily related to the continuous improvements made over the years in how farmers care for their animals through better nutrition, health and overall management, as well as through improvements in crop production.
One example in the report shows that feed efficiency of pigs has improved 33 percent, which means that animals consume less feed for every pound of meat produced. This is a major factor that reduces both the amount of land required for growing grain and the amount of manure produced by pigs.
The National Pork Board has defined four pillars of environmental sustainability - carbon footprint, water footprint, air footprint and land footprint. According to Conley Nelson, National Pork Board president, the Pork Checkoff is making inroads into all of these areas with farmer-directed research and the creation of on-farm tools. Most notably, producers can now use the Live Swine Carbon Footprint Calculator to calculate the impact and improvements on their own farms.
As each of the four pillars of environmental sustainability is completed they will be integrated with the others to provide a tool that pork producers can use to further their ongoing efforts to protect the natural environment in all of their farming activities.

Animal feed producer studies carbon footprint

Charoen Pokphand Foods, an animal feed producer based in Thailand, has kicked off a carbon footprint project and various measures to manage greenhouse gas emissions and resource consumption, according to The Nation.
Charoen Pokphand Foods and its parent, Charoen Pokphand Group, produce 133 items for domestic and international markets.
Kularb Kimsri, assistant vice president of the company's Global Standard System Center, told the newspaper that the project is among the company's undertakings on environmental management and conservation of natural resources.
Kimsri told The Nation, "Charoen Pokphand Foods has developed its own internal resource including employees who have now achieved certification as carbon footprint auditors, and advanced life cycle assessment software that allows the transparent, accurate and reliable calculation of greenhouse gas emissions which can be audited." 

Delacon studies feed additives as carbon footprint reducers

The key to managing the livestock industry’s carbon footprint while continuing to supply the demand for meat likely lies in continued increases in efficiency, according to Delacon, which has focused on improved performance and economic profit, and the reduction of ammonia and odor emissions, in its product development.
Transferring research results into carbon dioxide equivalents has revealed that these are also the core parameters to achieve a substantial carbon footprint reduction in animal production, said the company, leading to two feed additives — Fresta F and Fresta F Plus — that reduce total life cycle greenhouse gas emissions per kilogram of fattening pig by 2.3–2.6 percent. Another product, Biostrong, results in a reduction of 4.8–5.3 percent, according to Delacon.
Feeding broilers and pigs products such as Delacon's could result in up to 29 million tons of CO₂-equivalents per year being eliminated from the environment, said the company — the equivalent of the annual emissions of 2.9 million citizens of the European Union.

New technology reduces air pollutants from chicken barns

Researchers from North Carolina State University and West Virginia University have developed a new technology that can reduce air pollutant emissions from some chicken and swine barns, and also reduce their energy use by recovering and possibly generating heat. Specifically, the research team designed, built and evaluated a proof-of-concept unit that incorporates a biofilter and a heat exchanger to reduce ammonia emissions from livestock barns, while also tempering — or heating up — the fresh air that is pumped into the barns. “The technology is best suited for use when an operation wants to vent a facility that has high ammonia concentrations, and pump in cleaner air in preparation for a fresh batch of chicks or piglets — particularly in cold weather," said Dr. Sanjay Shah, an associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering at NC State and lead author of a paper describing the research. "It is also suitable for use when supplemental heat is required for raising the young animals.” When operated in a 5,000-bird chicken house, a prototype removed up to 79% of ammonia and reduced the energy needed to maintain the necessary temperature  in the facility, recovering as much as 8.3 kilowatts of heat. “We plan to continue working to improve the system design in order to make it even more efficient,” said Shah. 

USPOULTRY creates poultry carbon footprint estimation toolkit

The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association has created a poultry carbon footprint estimation toolkit to assist facilities in evaluating their carbon footprint.
The kit was developed in response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas reporting requirements and potential GHG regulatory requirements associated with the Greenhouse Gases Tailoring Rule. It allows facilities to calculate the emission of GHGs generated by stationary sources (i.e., boilers and generators) by inputting the volume of various fuels used at the facility into a spreadsheet that has been populated with the necessary arithmetic equations. Additionally, the toolkit provides facilities with anaerobic processes operated at wastewater treatment plants with the ability to calculate and log those GHG emissions to evaluate their need to report as required by the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule.  

UK pig producers forecast double digit cut in carbon emissions

The UK pig industry expects to cut its carbon emissions by 17% over the next 20 years. The prediction was made by Mick Sloyan, director of BPEX, which works to enhance the competitiveness of English pig meat producers, at this year’s Pig and Poultry Fair.
Since 2001, there has been an 8.2% reduction in carbon emissions through better performance on farm and, based on current trends, BPEX predicts that the industry’s environmental impact, taking into account all environmental burdens, will fall by as much as 30% between 2001 and 2010.
Mr Sloyan notes that the top 10% of producers will reduce their environmental impact further still.
Towards the end of last year, BPEX launched a Lifecycle Assessment, to estimate the environmental impacts of pork production and to identify opportunities for improvement. Measures to enhance the environmental sustainability of pig and pork production have also come under the spotlight.
At the time of the launch, BPEX head of marketing Chris Lamb commented: “The pig industry is determined to participate fully in the environmental debate and play its part in reducing greenhouse gases.”