Life cycle assessment of horse manure treatment
2016 (English)In: Energies, E-ISSN 1996-1073, Vol. 9, no 12, article id 1011Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
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.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2016. Vol. 9, no 12, article id 1011
Keywords [en]
Anaerobic digestion, Bedding material, Biogas, Combustion, Composting, Horse manure, Incineration, Life cycle assessment (LCA)
National Category
Energy Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-34529DOI: 10.3390/en9121011ISI: 000392402700012Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85002989961OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mdh-34529DiVA, id: diva2:1059234
2016-12-222016-12-222023-08-28Bibliographically approved