Heterogeneity inside heaps of composting livestock manure and its influence on emission loss of greenhouse gases and ammonia

Summary

Considerable amounts of methane and nitrous oxide were emitted during storage of solid pig manure generated by slurry separation. The production of greenhouse gases inside the heap was found to be heavily influenced by the oxygen accessibility, which again was influenced by length of storage and the distance to the heap surface. This implies that emission of greenhouse gases from stores of solid manure may be heavily influenced by the size of heaps and the length of storage. Attention should therefore be paid to the size of heap and the length of the storage period when composting studies for inventories of greenhouse gas emission are planned or used.