Evaluation of the sustainability of a prototype for atmospheric ammonia capture from swine farms using gas-permeable membrane technology

Abstract

Ammonia (NH3) emissions from animal wastes are directly related to serious environmental problems and can be reduced by using gas-permeable membranes (GPMs) in animal housings, but not many studies have been conducted on the environmental impact of the entire system. Thus, the aim of this work was to analyze the environmental impacts caused by the implementation of GPM technology in a 920-animal swine farm with a closed cycle (i.e., birth, breeding, transition, and fattening take place on the same site), using life-cycle analysis (LCA). Two scenarios were studied: a reference scenario in which there was no NH3 reduction from the air captured in the sheds and a treatment scenario that used the GPM technology. The LCA results were evaluated by using the ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (H) V1.04 method, showing that using the GPM technology had beneficial environmental impacts. Terrestrial acidification (TA) showed a reduction of 14.68 kg SO2 eq compared with the reference scenario, whilst human carcinogenic toxicity (HCT), human non-carcinogenic toxicity (HnCT), and land use (LU) showed reductions of 1.52 kg 1,4-DCB, 66.26 kg 1,4-DCB, and 44.55 m2a crop eq, respectively.