Reduction of agricultural lifecylce-emissions – an ecological assessment of different manure management systems

The aim of the work was to implement a lifecycle comparison of four different manure management systems. Based on a reference scenario - represented by an uncovered slurry tank - three different scenarios have been assessed. Scenario 1 means the adaption of the reference system to the best available technology which was defined as a covered slurry tank. For the second and third scenario anaerobic digestion of the slurry - in centralised community biogas plants for scenario 2 and decentralised on side small scale biogas plants for scenario 3 - was evaluated. A full lifecycle - integrating direct as well as indirect emissions - of all process steps have been generated. The ecological impact was assessed with the sustainable process index using the SPIonWeb online tool