Composting animal manure has the potential to reduce emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) from agriculture. Agriculture has been recognized as a major contributor of greenhouse gases, releasing an estimated 81% and 70% of the anthropogenic emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4), respectively. A significant amount of methane is emitted during the storage of liquid manur...

Meeting the future food security challenge without further sacrificing environmental integrity requires transformative changes in managing the key biophysical determinants of increasing agronomic productivity and reducing the environmental footprint. Here, we focus on Chinese rice production and quantitatively address this concern by conducting 403 on-farm trials across diverse rice farming sys...

Received: 11/11/2013 Revised: 13/12/2013 Accepted: 15/12/2013 Abstract Methane is the second key greenhouse gas (GHG) and enteric fermentation in livestock is one of the largest sources of methane emission, producing 15-20 % of the total anthropogenic methane. Methane production by enteric fermentation in the rumen accounts for the 2-12% loss of gross energy and consequently influence performan...

Bioenergy is given an important role in reaching national and international climate change targets. However, uncertainties relating to emission reductions and the timeframe for these reductions are increasingly recognised as challenges whether bioenergy can deliver the required reductions. This paper discusses and highlights the challenges and the importance of the real greenhouse gas (GHG) red...

To reduce GHG emissions, the 27 European Union Member States committed themselves in 2007 to reduce emissions from 1990 levels by 20% by 2020. In January 2008, the EU Commission gave the first country-specific proposals to reduce emissions in sectors outside the EU emission trading system (non-ETS). In this study, we looked at several ways of sharing emission reductions in the non-ETS sector. W...

Basic approaches typically include spreadsheet-based analyses that use emissions factor relationships or other assumptions to estimate reductions. Sophisticated approaches are usually more complex and involve dynamic electricity or energy system representations that predict energy generation responses to policies and calculate the effects on emissions.* 4.2.2 QUANTIFY AIR AND GHG EMISSION REDUC...

A considerable contribution to the worlds total GHG emission originates from gas flaring: According to a World Bank estimation an amount of around 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas is flared around the world annually, contaminating the environment with 400 million tons of CO2. This is equivalent to around 25 % of the United States’ gas consumption, or 30 % of gas consumption in the Europe...

A protocol that consisted of an isolation flux chamber and a portable gas chromatograph was used to directly quantify greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at a dairy and a feedyard operation in the Texas Panhandle. Field sampling campaigns were performed 5 consecutive days only during daylight hours from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm each day. The objective of this research was to quantify and compare GHG emiss...

Biogas digesters are commonly used in livestock farming in China. The digestion process converts large amounts of raw liquid manure (RLM) to biogas digester effluent (BDE). The BDE is then stored on the farm for some time before land application as crop or orchard nutrients. Storage of RLM or BDE is associated with gas emissions, although little information is available concerning comparison of...

OBJECTIVE Global health challenges include non-communicable disease burdens, ensuring food security in the context of rising food prices, and environmental constraints around food production, e.g., greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions. We therefore aimed to consider optimized solutions to the mix of food items in daily diets for a developed country population: New Zealand (NZ). METHODS We conducted...