Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from animal manure management are of great concern in China.
However, there are still great uncertainties about China’s GHG inventory due to the GHG emission factors
partly used default values from the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines. The
purpose of this study was to use a case study in Beijing to determine the regional GHG emission factors
based on the combination of swine manure composting and land application of the compost with both
on-site examination and a life cycle assessment (LCA). The results showed that the total GHG emission
factor was 240 kgCO2eq tDS1 (dry solids), including the direct GHG emission factor of 115 kgCO2eq tDS 1 for swine manure composting and 48 kgCO2eq tDS1 for land application of the compost. Among the
total GHG emissions of 5.06 kgCH4 tDS1 and 0.13 kgN2O tDS1
, the swine manure composting
contributed approximately 89% to CH4 emissions while land application accounted for 92% of N2O
emission. Meanwhile, the GHG emission profile from the full process in Beijing in 2015 and 2020 was
predicted by the scenario analysis. The composting and land application is a cost-effective way for animal
manure management in China considering GHG emissions.
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