Life Cycle Assessment of Horse Manure Treatment

Ola Eriksson, Åsa Hadin, Jay Hennessy and Daniel Jonsson
Additional contact information
Ola Eriksson: Department of Building, Energy and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Sustainable Development, University of Gävle, Kungsbäcksvägen 47, SE-801 76 Gävle, Sweden
Åsa Hadin: Department of Building, Energy and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Sustainable Development, University of Gävle, Kungsbäcksvägen 47, SE-801 76 Gävle, Sweden
Jay Hennessy: SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, Box 857, SE-501 15 Borås, Sweden
Daniel Jonsson: Department of Building, Energy and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Sustainable Development, University of Gävle, Kungsbäcksvägen 47, SE-801 76 Gävle, Sweden

Energies, 2016, vol. 9, issue 12, 1-19

Abstract: Horse manure consists of feces, urine, and varying amounts of various bedding materials. The management of horse manure causes environmental problems when emissions occur during the decomposition of organic material, in addition to nutrients not being recycled. The interest in horse manure undergoing anaerobic digestion and thereby producing biogas has increased with an increasing interest in biogas as a renewable fuel. This study aims to highlight the environmental impact of different treatment options for horse manure from a system perspective. The treatment methods investigated are: (1) unmanaged composting; (2) managed composting; (3) large-scale incineration in a waste-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plant; (4) drying and small-scale combustion; and (5) liquid anaerobic digestion with thermal pre-treatment. Following significant data uncertainty in the survey, the results are only indicative. No clear conclusions can be drawn regarding any preference in treatment methods, with the exception of their climate impact, for which anaerobic digestion is preferred. The overall conclusion is that more research is needed to ensure the quality of future surveys, thus an overall research effort from horse management to waste management.

Keywords: horse manure; bedding material; life cycle assessment (LCA); anaerobic digestion; incineration; composting; biogas; combustion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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