IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i9p3521-d1381069.html

Environmental Assessment of Pig Manure Treatment Systems through Life Cycle Assessment: A Mini-Review

Author

Listed:
  • José Ferreira

    (Centre for Natural Resources, Environment and Society-CERNAS-IPV, Av. Cor. José Maria Vale de Andrade, 3504-510 Viseu, Portugal)

  • Lenise Santos

    (Technology and Management School, Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, Av. Cor. José Maria Vale de Andrade, 3504-510 Viseu, Portugal)

  • Miguel Ferreira

    (IT Department, Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, Av. Cor. José Maria Vale de Andrade, 3504-510 Viseu, Portugal)

  • António Ferreira

    (CERNAS—Research Centre for Natural Resources, Environment and Society, Escola Superior Agrária de Coimbra, Bencanta, 3045-601 Coimbra, Portugal)

  • Idalina Domingos

    (Centre for Natural Resources, Environment and Society-CERNAS-IPV, Av. Cor. José Maria Vale de Andrade, 3504-510 Viseu, Portugal)

Abstract

The primary aim of this research was to evaluate and compare the environmental impacts, throughout the life cycle, of the main treatment systems employed by the industry, as well as to identify the processes that contribute most to these environmental impacts. To achieve this, a bibliographical search was conducted using the Web of Science Core Collection database platform, utilizing the keywords “life cycle assessment”, “pig”, “treatment”, and “manure” or “slurry”. The search was restricted to publications from the last five years (2019–2023), resulting in a total of 66 publications that were then analyzed according to the functional unit (FU) adopted. For the 10 publications whose FUs were expressed in tons or cubic meters of treated manure, a descriptive and quantitative analysis was carried out. It was found that anaerobic digestion has been the most widely used treatment technology for pig manure over the past five years, according to the LCA methodology. These systems, configured as biogas and biofertilizer production facilities, have proven to be environmentally friendly and could play a crucial role in the energy transition and decarbonization of the energy matrix.

Suggested Citation

  • José Ferreira & Lenise Santos & Miguel Ferreira & António Ferreira & Idalina Domingos, 2024. "Environmental Assessment of Pig Manure Treatment Systems through Life Cycle Assessment: A Mini-Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-18, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:9:p:3521-:d:1381069
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/9/3521/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/9/3521/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Scarlat, Nicolae & Dallemand, Jean-François & Fahl, Fernando, 2018. "Biogas: Developments and perspectives in Europe," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 129(PA), pages 457-472.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lenise Santos & Miguel Ferreira & Idalina Domingos & Veronica Oliveira & Carla Rodrigues & António Ferreira & José Ferreira, 2025. "Life Cycle Assessment of Pig Production in Central Portugal: Environmental Impacts and Sustainability Challenges," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-16, January.
    2. Xiaoqin Wang & Jia Wang & Congcong Duan & Xinjing Wang & Dongli Liang, 2025. "Systematic Review on the Life Cycle Assessment of Manure-Based Anaerobic Digestion System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-27, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Małgorzata Pawłowska & Magdalena Zdeb & Marta Bis & Lucjan Pawłowski, 2025. "State and Perspectives of Biomethane Production and Use—A Systematic Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-43, May.
    2. Mac Clay, Pablo & Börner, Jan & Sellare, Jorge, 2023. "Institutional and macroeconomic stability mediate the effect of auctions on renewable energy capacity," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    3. Amar Naji & Sabrina Guérin Rechdaoui & Elise Jabagi & Carlyne Lacroix & Sam Azimi & Vincent Rocher, 2023. "Pilot-Scale Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Wastewater Sludge with Lignocellulosic Waste: A Study of Performance and Limits," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-13, September.
    4. Piotr Bórawski & Aneta Bełdycka-Bórawska & Zuzana Kapsdorferová & Tomasz Rokicki & Andrzej Parzonko & Lisa Holden, 2024. "Perspectives of Electricity Production from Biogas in the European Union," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-26, March.
    5. Fernandez, Helen Coarita & Buffiere, Pierre & Bayard, Rémy, 2022. "Understanding the role of mechanical pretreatment before anaerobic digestion: Lab-scale investigations," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 193-203.
    6. Justyna Górka & Małgorzata Cimochowicz-Rybicka & Dominika Poproch, 2022. "Sludge Management at the Kraków-Płaszów WWTP—Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-11, June.
    7. Dumitru Peni & Marcin Dębowski & Mariusz Jerzy Stolarski, 2022. "Influence of the Fertilization Method on the Silphium perfoliatum Biomass Composition and Methane Fermentation Efficiency," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-13, January.
    8. Duan, Yumin & Wang, Zhi & Ganeshan, Prabakaran & Sar, Taner & Xu, Suyun & Rajendran, Karthik & Sindhu, Raveendran & Binod, Parameswaran & Pandey, Ashok & Zhang, Zengqiang & Taherzadeh, Mohammad J. & A, 2025. "Anaerobic digestion in global bio-energy production for sustainable bioeconomy: Potential and research challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    9. Maktabifard, Mojtaba & Al-Hazmi, Hussein E. & Szulc, Paulina & Mousavizadegan, Mohammad & Xu, Xianbao & Zaborowska, Ewa & Li, Xiang & Mąkinia, Jacek, 2023. "Net-zero carbon condition in wastewater treatment plants: A systematic review of mitigation strategies and challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    10. Sofia Dahlgren & Jonas Ammenberg, 2021. "Sustainability Assessment of Public Transport, Part II—Applying a Multi-Criteria Assessment Method to Compare Different Bus Technologies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-30, January.
    11. Agnieszka A. Pilarska & Tomasz Kulupa & Adrianna Kubiak & Agnieszka Wolna-Maruwka & Krzysztof Pilarski & Alicja Niewiadomska, 2023. "Anaerobic Digestion of Food Waste—A Short Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-23, August.
    12. Park, Min-Ju & Kim, Hak-Min & Gu, Yun-Jeong & Jeong, Dae-Woon, 2023. "Optimization of biogas-reforming conditions considering carbon formation, hydrogen production, and energy efficiencies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    13. Elena Tamburini & Mattias Gaglio & Giuseppe Castaldelli & Elisa Anna Fano, 2020. "Is Bioenergy Truly Sustainable When Land-Use-Change (LUC) Emissions Are Accounted for? The Case-Study of Biogas from Agricultural Biomass in Emilia-Romagna Region, Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-20, April.
    14. Oliva, Armando & Papirio, Stefano & Pirozzi, Francesco & Esposito, Giovanni & Lens, Piet N.L., 2025. "Inoculum dependence of methane formation from lignocellulosic biowastes," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    15. Anca-Couce, A. & Hochenauer, C. & Scharler, R., 2021. "Bioenergy technologies, uses, market and future trends with Austria as a case study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    16. Pochwatka, Patrycja & Rozakis, Stelios & Kowalczyk-Juśko, Alina & Czekała, Wojciech & Qiao, Wei & Nägele, Hans-Joachim & Janczak, Damian & Mazurkiewicz, Jakub & Mazur, Andrzej & Dach, Jacek, 2023. "The energetic and economic analysis of demand-driven biogas plant investment possibility in dairy farm," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    17. Psarros, Georgios N. & Papathanassiou, Stavros A., 2023. "Generation scheduling in island systems with variable renewable energy sources: A literature review," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 1105-1124.
    18. Bedoić, Robert & Dorotić, Hrvoje & Schneider, Daniel Rolph & Čuček, Lidija & Ćosić, Boris & Pukšec, Tomislav & Duić, Neven, 2021. "Synergy between feedstock gate fee and power-to-gas: An energy and economic analysis of renewable methane production in a biogas plant," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 12-23.
    19. Gul, Eid & Baldinelli, Giorgio & Bartocci, Pietro & Shamim, Tariq & Domenighini, Piergiovanni & Cotana, Franco & Wang, Jinwen & Fantozzi, Francesco & Bianchi, Francesco, 2023. "Transition toward net zero emissions - Integration and optimization of renewable energy sources: Solar, hydro, and biomass with the local grid station in central Italy," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 672-686.
    20. Herbes, Carsten & Rilling, Benedikt & Ringel, Marc, 2021. "Policy frameworks and voluntary markets for biomethane – How do different policies influence providers’ product strategies?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:9:p:3521-:d:1381069. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.