The negative environmental impacts on areas of intensive pig farming areas are considerable and well-known. They include air, water and soil quality deterioration, as well as social nuisance and health impacts. Efforts to recycle nutrients in livestock manure must be adapted to local characteristics. Environmental technologies and management strategies offer a real potential to minimise these impacts, but these are often impeded by the lack of well-defined market conditions and variations in regulations among EU countries. Moreover, there is still a gap between the understanding of the impacts of manure management and the take-up of this knowledge by policy makers. It is now understood that cost-effective solutions require integrated policies.

The project aims to:

• Demonstrate that both the use of treatment technology and an adequate management scheme of pig manure can contribute to a reduction of GHG emissions, while at the same time improving the situation of farmers;
• Improve environmental protection and the sustainability of pig farming by increasing the use of manure treatment technology in various livestock-dominated areas of Europe;
• Unify criteria for the evaluation of different manure treatment technology systems and management schemes;
• Develop a common protocol among European regions for the evaluation of manure treatment technology and management schemes that take into account environmental, technological, energy, economic, legal and health factors;
• Develop and test a decision supporting and planning tool to evaluate different manure treatment and management strategies in various European countries: Italy, Denmark, Poland, and various sites in Spain;
• Define the fertilising properties of directly applied manure and of treated waste in order to provide a real value in the market;
• Evaluate the know-how related to the treatment technologies and management methods, its strengths and weaknesses, within the different countries and areas in Europe.

Expected results:

• A system of indicators and a common evaluation protocol for the evaluation of existing pig manure treatment technologies;
• The evaluation of several treatment and manure management methods, according to the agreed protocol: three separation systems, nine anaerobic digestion systems, six nitrogen removal technologies, two nitrogen recovery technologies, two composting techniques and one direct application of manure to crop lands;
• The evaluation of these methods/technologies based on the following criteria: (i) GHG emissions, (ii) eutrophication, (iii) acidification, (iv) energy balance (kWh), (v) economic feasibility, (vi) health, (vii) legal framework and (viii) social awareness;
• A decision support and planning tool capable of the selecting and designing an efficient manure management system adapted to local requirements;
• The validation of the tool in two regions: Warminsko-Mazurskie Voivodeship (Poland) and Murcia (Spain);
• The definition of common quality standards to determine the fertiliser value of manure and treatment effluents.