ELFE, a database to determine greenhouse gases and ammonia emissions factors from livestock. 20.  Nitrogen Workshop. Coupling C-N-P-S cycle

Brame, Coline

Edouard, Nadège

Eglin, T.

Espagnol, S.

Eugène, Maguy

Genermont, Sophie

Guingand, N

Hassouna, Melynda

Klumpp, Katja

Lagadec, S.

Lorinquer, E.

Loyon, L.

Ponchant, P.

Robin, Paul

Vigan, Aurore

English

Archive Ouverte en Sciences de l'Information et de la Communication

42 | P a g e  
ELFE, A DATABASE TO DETERMINE GREENHOUSE GASES AND AMMONIA EMISSIONS FACTORS FROM 
LIVESTOCK 
Vigan, A.1 2 3, Hassouna, M.3, Robin, P.3, Guingand, N.2, Espagnol, S.2, Edouard, N.4, Lorinquer, E.1, Loyon, L.5, 
Genermont, S.6, Eugene, M.7, Lagadec, S.8, Brame, C.8, Klumpp, K.9,  
Ponchant, P.10, Eglin, T.11 
1 Idele, France; 2 IFIP, France; 3 INRA Agrocampus Ouest UMR SAS, France; 4 INRA Agrocampus Ouest UMR PEGASE, France; 5 IRSTEA, 
France; 6 INRA UMR ECOSYS, France; 7 INRA UMRH, France; 8 CRAB, France; 9 INRA UMR UREP, France; 10 ITAVI, France; 11 ADEME, 
France 
INTRODUCTION 
Livestock sector represents a major source of gaseous emissions contributing to air pollution. In France, 
17.8% of greenhouse gas (GHG) and 70% of ammonia (NH3) originates from this sector. Improving the 
knowledge on the magnitude and origin of gaseous emissions is, thus, essential to reduce emissions, to meet 
the societal requirement and to setup regulations at national and European levels. A French consortium 
involving research and extension services partners was created to draw up an inventory of GHG and NH3 
emissions resulting from livestock systems. The aim of this project was to develop a new methodology to 
provide emission factors (EF) characterizing the diversity of practices. A database called ELFE (ELevages et 
Facteurs d’Emission) containing EF from the international literature and related metadata was developed, 
allowing the calculation of gaseous emission per technical itinerary.  
MATERIAL AND METHODS  
The first step was to create the structure of the database using Microsoft Excel® 2013. To organize it, five 
stages of manure management characterizing emission sources were defined: housing; pasture; outdoor 
manure storage; manure treatment and spreading. The housing database was created for each animal 
production (cattle, poultry and swine) to take into account production specificities. Technical itineraries 
were defined for each animal production and manure management stage. A review of the international 
literature references was performed to collect publications on GHG and NH3 emissions in cattle, poultry and 
swine productions for the different stages of manure management: around 1 000 publications were 
recorded, corresponding to scientific papers, proceedings or study reports. EF and metadata taking into 
account livestock system practices and metrological information were integrated in the corresponding part 
of the database. EF were then classified according to two selection criteria: 1/ the level of information about 
metadata associated to emission values previously defined as determinant - three completeness classes 
depending on the level of information were defined: > 50%; 30-50%; <30%; 2/ a classification based on the 
measurement method/technology employed to obtain emissions values will also be proposed. Then, EF 
were converted into “reference units” to allow their analysis and comparison. The next steps focused on 
data analysis to determine average EF’s per itinerary and EF-variability due to metadata (i.e. climate, housing 
system, animal type, diet, storage duration, storage type, etc.).  
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION  
Table 1 presents the number of data integrated in the base (n EF) for housing (by animal production), outdoor 
manure storage and spreading and the corresponding number of publications.  
Table 1. Number of integrated EF in the database and number of corresponding publication 
 Housing Storage Spreading 
Number Cattle Pig Poultry   
Number of EF 545 1 758 313 1 567 860 
Number of publications 46 152 28 106 56 
43 | P a g e  
According to the objectives, the database ELFE can be used in different ways: (i) to calculate an average 
emission value corresponding to a specific technical itinerary, (ii) to calculate an average emission value 
depending on selection criteria, and (iii) to carry out statistical analysis to provide emission references 
(under development).  
(i) Average values were calculated for NH3 emission from housing for a specific technical itinerary defined as 
reference system for dairy cattle (cubicle house, producing slurry) and swine production (growing-finishing 
pigs kept on fully slatted floor with vacuum system to remove the slurry from the pit at the end of the 
batch). The first results seem consistent with official reference documents values on gaseous emissions 
reported by Bittman et al. (2014) in UNECE report; in EMEP inventory (2016) and in IRPP BREF (Giner-
Santonja et al., 2017): 15.9 ± 13.2 and 3.9 ± 1.7 kg NH3.animal place-1.year-1 for dairy cattle (full-time housing 
of the animals) and fattening pig respectively.  
(ii) At this time, EF were only obtained according to the first selection criterion (level of metadata provided in 
the publication). Figure 1 presents the distribution of data into the three completeness classes and shows a 
great variability between the different manure management stages and animal production for housing 
(more data need to be integrated in the database to calculate an average emission value per completeness 
classes).  
 
Figure 1. Distribution of EF into the three completeness classes 
CONCLUSION  
This project proposes a global approach including different tools to provide an inventory and selection 
criteria of GHG and NH3 emissions published in the literature. Despite the high variability of emission levels 
due to the large diversity of livestock systems, practices and measurement methods, this study allows to 
propose a detailed inventory of gaseous emission. This study also allows to identify the lack of data about 
the conditions for the acquisition of emission values reported in the literature that make difficult the 
comparison of EF. 
Acknowledgements: This project was funded by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency 
(ADEME), the French Ministry of Agriculture and the French National Research Agency (ANR).  
REFERENCES 
Bittman S., Dedina M., Howard C.M., Oenema O., Sutton M.A., 2014. Options for Ammonia Mitigation: 
Guidance from the UNECE Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Edinburgh, 
UK 
EMEP/EEA – Guidebook, air pollutant emission inventory, 2016. Technical guidance to prepare national 
emission inventories 
Giner-Santonja G., Georgitzikis K., Scalet B.M., Montobbio P., Roudier S., Delagado Sancho L., 2017. Best 
Available Techniques (BAT) Reference Document for the Intensive Rearing of Poultry or Pigs; EUR 28674 
EN; doi: 10.2760/020485 
  


ELFE, a database to determine greenhouse gases and ammonia emissions factors from livestock

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ELFE, a database to determine greenhouse gases and ammonia emissions factors from livestock

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