Net greenhouse gas emissions from manure management using anaerobic digestion technology in a beef cattle feedlot in Brazil

Abstract

As part of an agreement during the COP15, the Brazilian government is fostering several activities intended to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. One of them is the adoption of anaerobic digester (AD) for treating animal manure. Due to a lack of information, we developed a case study in order to evaluate the effect of such initiative for beef cattle feedlots. We considered the net GHG emissions (CH4 and N2O) from the manure generated from 140 beef heifers confined for 90days in the scope “housing to field application” by including field measurements, literature values, and the offset generated by the AD system through the replacement of conventional sources of nitrogen (N) fertilizer and electricity, respectively. Results showed that direct GHG emissions accounted for 0.14±0.06kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) per kg of animal live weight gain (lwg), with ~80% originating from field application, suggesting that this emission does not differ from the conventional manure management (without AD) typically done in Brazil (0.19±0.07kg of CO2eq per kglwg−1). However, 2.4MWh and 658.0kg of N-manure were estimated to be generated as a consequence of the AD utilization, potentially offsetting 0.13±0.01kg of CO2eqkglwg−1 or 95% (±45%) of total direct emissions from the manure management. Although, by replacing fossil fuel sources, i.e. diesel oil, this offset could be increased to 169% (±47%). In summary, the AD has the potential to significantly mitigate GHG emissions from manure management in beef cattle feedlots, but the effect is indirect and highly dependent on the source to be replaced. In spite of the promising results, more and continuous field measurements for decreasing uncertainties and improving assumptions are required. Identifying shortcomings would be useful not only for the effectiveness of the Brazilian government, but also for worldwide plans in mitigating GHG emissions from beef production systems.