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Impacts of biogas production on nitrogen flows on Dutch dairy system: Multiple level assessment of nitrogen indicators within the biogas production chain
Author(s) -
Hoang Dieu Linh,
Davis Chris,
Moll Henri C.,
hebel Sanderine
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of industrial ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.377
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1530-9290
pISSN - 1088-1980
DOI - 10.1111/jiec.12956
Subject(s) - digestate , biogas , environmental science , renewable energy , manure , greenhouse gas , biofuel , bioenergy , agriculture , nitrogen , dairy farming , fertilizer , production (economics) , energy crop , anaerobic digestion , waste management , agronomy , pulp and paper industry , engineering , methane , chemistry , economics , ecology , electrical engineering , macroeconomics , organic chemistry , biology
Abstract Biogas production on dairy farms is promoted as a climate change measure since it captures methane, a greenhouse gas emitted by manure, and produces renewable energy. Digestate is a by‐product of biogas production and is often used for nutrient recycling in a similar way as traditional manure. Despite having similar functions, manure and digestate have different behaviors related to nitrogen recycling and nitrogen emissions which are significant agricultural and environmental concerns of manure. This paper provides an insight into the impact of biogas production on nitrogen emissions and nitrogen recycling issues of the current dairy farming practice. Using the Substance Flow Analysis (SFA) approach, we analyzed the changes on three levels: manure handling, dairy farm, and the whole chain. Four biogas production options on a Dutch dairy farm related to types and sources of feedstocks were considered. We quantified biogas output, nitrogen fertilizer replacement percentage (%) and consequential nitrogen emissions (kgN/year; kgN/m 3 biogas produced) of these productions in comparison with the baseline of current dairy farming without biogas. We conclude that biogas production options with additional feedstocks will cause profound changes in the nitrogen recycling on dairy farms and the nitrogen emissions at the chain level. Besides, the results show that determining the optimal biogas production option can be challenging as the evaluation is highly dependent on the used nitrogen indicator and the included level of analysis. Our findings show how SFA and a multilevel perspective can give a broader understanding of environmental trade‐offs.