Evaluation of Biochar Addition to Digestate, Slurry, and Manure for Mitigating Carbon Emissions

Leonardo Verdi (), Anna Dalla Marta, Simone Orlandini, Anita Maienza, Silvia Baronti and Francesco Primo Vaccari
Additional contact information
Leonardo Verdi: Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI), University of Florence, Piazzale delle Cascine, 18, 50144 Florence, Italy
Anna Dalla Marta: Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI), University of Florence, Piazzale delle Cascine, 18, 50144 Florence, Italy
Simone Orlandini: Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI), University of Florence, Piazzale delle Cascine, 18, 50144 Florence, Italy
Anita Maienza: Institute of BioEconomy (IBE), National Research Council (CNR), Via Madonna del Piano 10, Sesto Fiorentino, 50019 Florence, Italy
Silvia Baronti: Institute of BioEconomy (IBE), National Research Council (CNR), Via Madonna del Piano 10, Sesto Fiorentino, 50019 Florence, Italy
Francesco Primo Vaccari: Institute of BioEconomy (IBE), National Research Council (CNR), Via Madonna del Piano 10, Sesto Fiorentino, 50019 Florence, Italy

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: The contribution of animal waste storage on GHG emissions and climate change is a serious issue for agriculture. The carbon emissions that are generated from barns represent a relevant source of emissions that negatively affect the environmental performance measures of livestock production. In this experiment, CO 2 and CH 4 emissions from different animal wastes, namely, digestate, slurry, and manure, were evaluated both in their original form and with a biochar addition. The emissions were monitored using the static camber methodology and a portable gas analyzer for a 21-day period. The addition of biochar (at a ratio of 2:1 between the substrates and biochar) significantly reduced the emissions of both gases compared to the untreated substrates. Slurry exhibited higher emissions due to its elevated gas emission tendency. The biochar addition reduced CO 2 and CH 4 emissions by 26% and 21%, respectively, from the slurry. The main effect of the biochar addition was on the digestate, where the emissions decreased by 45% for CO 2 and 78% for CH 4 . Despite a lower tendency to emit carbon-based gases of manure, biochar addition still caused relevant decreases in CO 2 (40%) and CH 4 (81%) emissions. Biochar reduced the environmental impacts of all treatments, with a GWP reduction of 55% for the digestate, 22% for the slurry, and 44% for the manure.

Keywords: global warming potential; climate change; carbon dioxide; methane; agronomy (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: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/1/162/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/1/162/ (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:14:y:2024:i:1:p:162-:d:1324311

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 ().