Pig Development Department - Research Results on Alternative Uses for Pig Manure

Increasing the amount of energy produced from renewable sources is a stated objective of the EU. Anaerobic Digestion, as investigated in this project, can extract energy from animal and plant biomass, while still retaining the nutritive value of the material as fertiliser. This project looked at reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from stored pig manure, by capturing methane during anaerobic digestion which would otherwise be produced naturally in storage under anaerobic conditions. In addition, production of renewable energy from pig manure is carbon neutral and offsets carbon dioxide that would otherwise be produced by fossil fuels, thus helping to meet Ireland’s targets to reduce CO2 emissions. Anaerobic digestion can also help reduce pathogen levels in pig manure. However, it is important to be aware that anaerobic digestion does not reduce the P and N content of manure. Moreover, as the manure will most likely be co digested with other biomass the N and P content of the digested material will likely be even higher than that of the raw manure.

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