Integrated Ammonia Abatement - Modelling of Emission Control Potentials and Costs in GAINS

With progressing reduction of the emissions of other air pollutants, control of ammonia emissions, particularly from agricultural sources, moves into the center stage of air pollution control in Europe. Over the recent years, more countries have implemented practical emission control measures, so that practical experience with such measures has substantially grown compared to a decade ago. This report describes how the new information on potentials and costs for the reduction of ammonia emissions that has been presented by national experts at a recent workshop has been incorporated into the GAINS (Greenhouse gas - Air pollution Interactions and Synergies) model developed by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). The former GAINS methodology has been modified to align better with the new focus of the UNECE Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen on large installations and to avoid calling for emission reductions on small (hobby) farms. As such a distinction will exclude measures with excessive costs (at small farms), the new cost estimates that address large farms only are lower than earlier calculations that applied to all sources. A comparison of unit cost estimates (costs per amount of ammonia reduced) reveals significant variations across countries, explained by local circumstances that have impacts on costs. Still, the most important patterns remain constant between countries. Animal feeding with low nitrogen diets and manure application techniques that minimize ammonia release are most cost effective, along with efficient application and/or substitution of urea fertilizer. Finally, the report provides also updates to the cost method used to estimate ammonia control costs in GAINS

Geographical variation in terrestrial nitrogen budgets across Europe

Nitrogen (N) budgets of agricultural systems give important information for assessing the impact of N inputs on the environment, and identify levers for action

Analyzing consumer-related nitrogen flows: A case study on food and material use in Austria

Nitrogen budgets cover pools and flows of nitrogen (N) contained in human-made goods and compounds, wich may potentially affect the global nitrogen cycle and in consequence the human environment. Acknowledging the importance of food and other agricultural products, this paper additionally investigates frequently neglected flows of N related to consumers and estimates their magnitude, using Austria in 2010 as an example. Specifically, N in non-food industrial products (synthetic & natural polymers, wood & paper products, waste), and N related to pets, gardens, and energy use is considered. Over the last five decades, both food and material consumption have increased distinctly. While food supply accounts for 52% of total directly consumer-related nitrogen inflows covered in this study (66,000t Na^1), also material products account for a considerable share of 28% (36,000t Na^1). N application in gardens (12%) and N in pet food (7%) do also play a role. Quantified outflows are human excretion (54%), food waste (13%), garden waste (16%), material waste (7%) and waste from pets (10%). The detected balance surplus of 34,000t Na^1, corresponding to 27% of total inflows, points to some accumulation of N in the form of durable consumer goods and to potentially missing flows. The analysis focusses on the apparent knowledge gaps. Especially flows involving material products are poorly understood and would require better understanding of nitrogen contents of products and of waste. This indicates that improvements may be possible by providing more complete nitrogen budgets in the future that cover all environmental pools

A Simplified Model of Nitrogen Flows from Manure Management

This report describes a model to simulate release processes of trace gases from manure into the atmosphere. This "manure handling model" (MHM) provides a mass-consistent scheme to follow nitrogen and carbon compounds along the typical stages of manure treatment in animal husbandry. In each of the model compartments, which reflect the respective stages, conversion between reactive and unreactive nitrogen or carbon species is possible, as well as the release of gaseous compounds from the reactive species. We use total ammoniacal nitrogen (TAN) as the reactive nitrogen species, and degradable volatile solid (VSd) as the reactive carbon species. Conversion parameters, either derived from specific information, e.g. national data, or as default values, allow assessing transformation rates. As a result, the model generates emission factors for the release of nitrogen components (gaseous NH3, N2O, NOx, N2 and NO3 -- in runoff and the associated N2O emission) and CH4 for use in IIASA's integrated assessment model GAINS. Results of MHM have been compared with the German emission model GAS-EM for dairy cattle on liquid manure to demonstrate that the simplified model is able to reflect complex national information. With identical input parameters, the simplified model reproduces results of the more complex models within 1% difference for the emission of all N components and emission of CH4. MHM was also used with default input (excretion rates, emission coefficients and removal factors) to generate emission factors for all possible combinations of animals and control strategies for all European countries. However, a comparison with current GAINS emission factors reveals substantial differences due to country-specific information that is available in GAINS

Nitrogen as a threat to the European greenhouse balance

Reactive nitrogen (N_r) is of fundamental importance in biological and chemical processes in the atmosphere-biosphere system, altering the Earth's climate balance in many ways. These include the direct and indirect emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O), atmospheric N_r deposition and tropospheric ozone formation (O3), both of which alter the biospheric CO2 sink, N_r supply effects on CH4 emissions, and the formation of secondary atmospheric aerosols resulting from the emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and ammonia (NH3). Human production and release of N_r into the environment is thus expected to have been an important driver of European greenhouse balance. Until now, no assessment has been made of how much of an effect European N_r emissions are having on net warming or cooling

Emissions from agriculture and their control potentials

This report reviews recent developments that are potentially relevant for the control of agricultural emissions in Europe. As a consequence of a several decades long history of ammonia emission controls in agriculture, principles of current methods and techniques have a sound scientific basis that is well proven in practice. No fundamentally new insights and fundamentally new techniques have emerged over the last decade. However, in the last 10 years, the known techniques have been applied at a much larger scale in an increasing number of countries, the practical functioning of these techniques has improved, and costs have declined through learning effects. In several countries specialized contractors have taken over some of the activities (e.g., low-emission manure application), which has substantially reduced costs. For the major sources of agricultural ammonia emissions (i.e., animal manure and urea fertilizer application), a range of emission control options is now proven in practice in more and more countries. Many of these measures are cost-effective, especially when additional synergistic effects are considered. Modified animal feeding, covered slurry storages, low-emission manure and urea fertilizer application techniques are now cost-effective means in many situations. In particular, modified animal feeding can decrease NH3 emissions from all stages of the animal manure management chain, and, at the same time, decrease N2O emissions and odour. Emission reduction efficiencies and costs of these measures are sensitive against chosen reference system and depend on local factors, such as weather and soil conditions, differences in management practices and in the technical performances of abatement measures. Yet, in many countries, there is only limited experience with low-emissions techniques, due to technical, economical and cultural barriers that prohibit their implementation. Information and experience gained in other countries is often not readily accepted by farmers. However, in several cases technological and institutional experience has been successfully transferred between countries, resulting in lower costs than originally anticipated. While cost estimates of low-emission techniques remain uncertain for specific farms due to the inherent variability of important factors across farms, costs tend to be higher on small farms in countries with little experience, and lower on large farms in countries with lots of experience. The report suggests concrete steps to incorporate these new developments into the GAINS integrated assessment model through modified definitions of mitigation options, adjusted data on emission removal efficiencies and applicabilities, and emission control costs

Potentials and Costs for Mitigation of Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gases in Annex 1 Countries: Version 2.0

This report documents the specific methodology of IIASA's GAINS model on methane, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases that has been used for comparing mitigation efforts across Annex I Parties. More details are available at gains.iiasa.ac.at

Future scenarios of nitrogen in Europe

The future effects of nitrogen in the environment will depend on the extent of nitrogen use and the practical application techniques of nitrogen in a similar way as in the past. Projections and scenarios are appropriate tools for extrapolating current knowledge into the future. However, these tools will not allow future system turnovers to be predicted