Trends on manure processing in Europe

Abstract

Manure treatment technologies are becoming important tools for the application of regulations concerning water and soil protection, greenhouse gasses emission mitigation, fertilizer resources recovery and renewable energy production. The technological strategy to be applied, as a combination of processes to fulfil a given objectives, depends on many factors, mainly related to local or regional conditions. As a result of the study described, 19,196 treatment units were identified, processing 7.8% of the livestock manure production in the EU, equal to 108 million tonnes/year, containing 556,000 tonnes of nitrogen and 139,000 tonnes of phosphorus. Products obtained from processing were classified in 11 groups, with three types of manure processing products being marketed at considerable volume, namely