As is well known, ammonia is emitted almost exclusively (around 95%) from agricultural areas – a reduction, as required, among other things, by the EU NEC Directive, can therefore only be achieved here. Protein components in animal feed have a significant impact on ammonia and odor emissions from livestock farming – the resulting emissions in the surrounding area regularly cause problems in practice. In some cases, not only are years-long delays in agricultural building permit procedures now a reality, but in Upper Austria, Styria, and Burgenland, building regulations also allow authorities to retroactively intervene in existing and approved barns.

Several options exist in practice for influencing ammonia and odor emissions from fattening pigs – effective measures include protein-adapted feeding (protein reduction or multi-fiber feeding) and the addition of tested additives during feed production or preparation. In the present project PigAir II, "Odor and Ammonia Emissions from Fattening Pig Farming Using Different Emission Reduction Strategies" (DaFNE No. 101519/1), in-depth emission and fattening technology studies are being conducted in cooperation with companies between 2020 and 2021.

Results

Initial results comparing a multi-phase feeding regime with a three-phase feeding regime, regarding fattening performance, the release of harmful gases, and odor emissions in pig fattening, show remarkable results in ammonia reduction. The accompanying image shows the NH3 profile during an entire fattening period, measured in the exhaust stacks. A clear reduction in ammonia emissions is evident in the experimental pen (pen 3, blue curve) compared to the control; the recorded reduction in ammonia here is approximately 50%.