Research project Innovative concepts and technologies for ECOlogically sustainable NUTRIent management in agriculture

General introduction

The European research project ECONUTRI has provided interesting insights into how to reduce emissions from barns and fields—including both ammonia and greenhouse gases—in practice. In livestock barns, frequent manure removal is particularly effective in lowering methane emissions. To also reduce ammonia emissions, it is important to efficiently remove all manure residues, for example through flushing systems, slopes, and smooth surfaces that minimize manure adhesion. In total, 24 innovative technologies have been developed and tested, which show great potential for reducing nutrient emissions in agriculture and improving the efficiency of nutrient use. Work has also been conducted on methods for measuring and monitoring emissions in barns and on fields.
ILVO took the lead in the work package on nature-based technologies that reduce greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions. In this work package, eight innovative technologies were tested to reduce NH3 and greenhouse gas emissions at three locations: from livestock barns, at off-site storage sites for organic residues, and in fields.
ECONUTRI’s goal was to test the practical application of new technologies under real-world conditions, in order to support both farmers in Europe and scientists in the further development and rollout of emission-reducing measures.

Research approach

ILVO conducted experiments at its Pig Campus to investigate the effect of rapid manure removal and the use of microbiological additives on ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions. The OTICE monitoring tool was expanded with an emission calculation tool for pig housing and was tested during the experiments at the Pig Campus. Furthermore, in collaboration with a private partner, ILVO tested modifications to a manure spreader to reduce ammonia emissions without compromising soil improvement. ILVO carried out the emission measurements on fertilized fields for this purpose.

Relevance/Valorization

The methodological knowledge development in this project has led to the conclusion that emission monitoring in pig barns using affordable sensors is indeed feasible. Both daily emission trends and sudden events can be tracked effectively, but drift appears to be a common problem. This seems to be solvable only through frequent reference measurements.
Using the innovative manure spreader, ILVO succeeded in applying nutrients to the field in a controlled manner and reducing emissions after fertilization.