Application of Granular and Non-Granular Organic Fertilizers in Terms of Energy, Environmental and Economic Efficiency

Egidijus Šarauskis, Vilma Naujokienė, Kristina Lekavičienė, Zita Kriaučiūnienė, Eglė Jotautienė, Algirdas Jasinskas and Raimonda Zinkevičienė
Additional contact information
Egidijus Šarauskis: Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Safety, Agriculture Academy, Vytautas Magnus University, Studentu Str. 15A, LT-53362 Akademija, Lithuania
Vilma Naujokienė: Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Safety, Agriculture Academy, Vytautas Magnus University, Studentu Str. 15A, LT-53362 Akademija, Lithuania
Kristina Lekavičienė: Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Safety, Agriculture Academy, Vytautas Magnus University, Studentu Str. 15A, LT-53362 Akademija, Lithuania
Zita Kriaučiūnienė: Institute of Agroecosystems and Soil Sciences, Agriculture Academy, Vytautas Magnus University, Studentu Str. 11, LT-53361 Akademija, Lithuania
Eglė Jotautienė: Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Safety, Agriculture Academy, Vytautas Magnus University, Studentu Str. 15A, LT-53362 Akademija, Lithuania
Algirdas Jasinskas: Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Safety, Agriculture Academy, Vytautas Magnus University, Studentu Str. 15A, LT-53362 Akademija, Lithuania
Raimonda Zinkevičienė: Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Safety, Agriculture Academy, Vytautas Magnus University, Studentu Str. 15A, LT-53362 Akademija, Lithuania

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 17, 1-17

Abstract: Granular organic fertilizers have been increasingly used in agriculture due to the longer delivery of nutrients to plants and the milder impact on the environment. The aim of this study was to determine the energy, environmental and economic efficiency of granular and non-granular organic fertilizers. Four technological scenarios of organic fertilizer use were used for comparative assessment: (1) manure fertilization (16.0 t ha −1 ), (2) manure fertilization (30.0 t ha −1 ), (3) manure pellet fertilization (2.0 t ha −1 ), and (4) fertilization with meat and bone meal pellets (0.7 t ha −1 ). Experimental studies using the mass flow method of laser spectroscopy were performed to evaluate the comparative environmental impact of granular and non-granular organic fertilizers. Economic assessment was performed for mechanized technological operations of loading, transportation and distribution of organic fertilizers, estimating the price of aggregates used and fuel consumed, the costs of individual technological operations and other indirect costs. The results showed that for mechanized technological operations, when fertilizing with granular organic manure and meat and bone meal fertilizer, energy consumption is 3.2 to 4.0 times lower compared to fertilization with manure. The average ammonia (NH 3 ) emissions from granular organic fertilizers were found to be six times lower than from non-granular organic fertilizers. The lowest costs for mechanized works were incurred when using meat and bone meal pellets, the highest economic benefits of organic fertilizers by elements was when using manure 30 t ha −1 , and the highest costs for organic fertilizers were incurred when using manure pellets.

Keywords: pellets; manure; emissions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/17/9740/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/17/9740/ (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:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:17:p:9740-:d:625476

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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