Assessment of Composted Pelletized Poultry Litter as an Alternative to Chemical Fertilizers Based on the Environmental Impact of Their Production

Nikolett Éva Kiss, János Tamás, Nikolett Szőllősi, Edit Gorliczay and Attila Nagy
Additional contact information
Nikolett Éva Kiss: Institute of Water and Environmental Management, University of Debrecen, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary
János Tamás: Institute of Water and Environmental Management, University of Debrecen, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary
Nikolett Szőllősi: Institute of Water and Environmental Management, University of Debrecen, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary
Edit Gorliczay: Institute of Water and Environmental Management, University of Debrecen, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary
Attila Nagy: Institute of Water and Environmental Management, University of Debrecen, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary

Agriculture, 2021, vol. 11, issue 11, 1-18

Abstract: Reducing the use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture is one of the EU Green Deal’s priorities. Since poultry production is increasing worldwide, stabilized poultry litter such as composted pelletized poultry litter (CPPL) is an alternative fertilizer option. On the contrary, compared to chemical fertilizers, the environmental impacts of composted products have not been adequately studied, and no data are currently available for CPPL produced by a closed composting system, such as the Hosoya system. The aim of this research was to assess the role of CPPL as a potential alternative for chemical fertilizer by evaluating the environmental impact of CPPL production via the Hosoya system using common chemical fertilizers. Based on life cycle assessment (LCA), the environmental impact (11 impact categories) was determined for the production of 1 kg of fertilizer, as well as for the production of 1 kg of active substances (nitrogen (N), phosphorus pentoxide (P 2 O 5 ), and potassium chloride (K 2 O)) and the theoretical nutrient (NPK) supply of a 100 ha field with CPPL and several chemical fertilizer options. The production of CPPL per kilogram was smaller than that of the chemical fertilizers; however, the environmental impact of chemical fertilizer production per kilogram of active substance (N, P 2 O 5 , or K 2 O) was lower for most impact categories, because the active substance was available at higher concentrations in said chemical fertilizers. In contrast, the NPK supply of a 100 ha field by CPPL was found to possess a smaller environmental impact compared to several combinations of chemical fertilizers. In conclusion, CPPL demonstrated its suitability as an alternative to chemical fertilizers.

Keywords: composted pelletized poultry litter; life cycle assessment; Hosoya composting; chemical fertilizers; EU Green Deal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/11/11/1130/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/11/11/1130/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:11:y:2021:i:11:p:1130-:d:676749

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().