Ammonia abatement strategies in livestock production: A case study of a poultry installation

Abstract

This study uses a linear programming approach to compare the potential effectiveness of uniform rules (under the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive) and a landscape-scale (a scale that includes different land-uses) based policy for reducing ammonia (NH 3) emissions and their related impacts from an operating case-study poultry installation. The model incorporates a variety of potential NH 3 abatement techniques. It also incorporates the first application of a spatial model of the diffusion of environmental impacts from NH 3 emissions. This models N deposition at a nearby nature reserve. The model finds that the uniform rules proposed under the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (IPPC) are likely to be ineffective in certain contexts and that a landscape-scale approach is more suitable for reducing N deposition from livestock production units in environmentally sensitive locations. However, the adjustments required are associated with large reductions in net margin. This reflects the limited range of cost-effective NH 3 abatement techniques available. An alternative cost-effective abatement technique could be to maintain a spatial buffer between livestock production and sensitive receptors.