1 Introduction and objectives

Life Cycle Assessment of Slurry Management Technologies

1.1 Background

In 2007, the Danish government launched an action plan to promote eco-efficient technology. The aim was to support the development of competitive technologies which benefit the environment and Danish business. As a part of the action plan, partnerships for innovation were established in five selected areas, among these “Partnership for Industrial Biotechnology”. Furthermore, the action plan included focus on Eco-efficient agricultural technologies.

On the background of the ongoing work in Partnership for Industrial Biotechnology combined with the fact that years of Danish research in the agricultural area has generated huge amount of environmental data for slurry management, the Danish Environmental Agency decided to initiate the preparation of a foundation for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for slurry management technologies.

At present, the existing environmental data for slurry management has not been collected systematically, which is required for the LCA-modelling of the environmental impacts of slurry management technologies.

The companies and organisations in Partnership for Industrial Biotechnology have agreed with the Danish Environmental Protection Agency to initiate this project in order to be able to establish a LCA foundation for slurry management. The contributing companies in this project have decided to put their own data on processes, mass balances and emissions at the disposal.

1.2 Objectives of the study

The objective of this study is to establish a foundation for Life Cycle Assessments of slurry management technologies in Denmark.

The LCA foundation consists of:

A database containing Life Cycle Data for selected slurry management technologies,
A reference model for conventional slurry management, which is expanded with models for alternative technologies and data from the contribution of participating companies. The models are part of the database.
This report, containing examples and results of Life Cycle Assessments performed for selected slurry management technologies.

The LCA foundation can be used by the contributing companies for evaluating the environmental sustainability of a specific technology from a holistic Life Cycle perspective. The goal of the study is to answer the question for each alternative technology: “What are the environmental benefits and disadvantages of introducing this technology for slurry management?”

From a societal perspective the results can contribute to a clarification of which slurry management technologies (or combination of technologies) having the largest potential for reducing the overall environmental impacts.

Moreover, some of the partners from Partnership for Industrial Biotechnology have mentioned that the results might be used in the work on EU standardization and certification in the area.

The results of the study are intended for public disclosure.

1.3 Organisation, Participants and Target Groups

This study was commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency of Denmark. The project was carried out in the period June 2008 - June 2009 for a budget corresponding to 3 months of fulltime work.

The steering committee for the study included:

Peter H. Schaarup, Environmental Protection Agency of Denmark
Thomas Alstrup, FORA
Frank Rosager, Xergi A/S
Michael Støckler, Agro Business Park
Jesper Kløverpris, Novozymes
Gunnar Hald Mikkelsen, Samson-Agro A/S
Morten Nørager, Kemira Water A/S
Jens Lund Pedersen Kemira Water A/S
Thorbjørn Machholm, Grundfos Management A/S

Furthermore, significant contributions was received from

Jørgen Mertz, Samson-Bimatech A/S
Nils Thorup, Grundfos Management A/S
Jesper Ravn Lorenzen, Grundfos New Business A/S
Lene Venke Kofod, Novozymes

The technical advisory group for the study included:

Sven Sommer, University of Southern Denmark
Randi Dalgaard, Danish Crown
Bjørn Molt Petersen, Department of Agroecology and Environment, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Aarhus University
Søren O. Petersen, Department of Agroecology and Environment, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Aarhus University

The study has been carried out by the University of Southern Denmark.