Events and results
This note provides a review of Danish policies on agricultural biogas production and status for their implementation.
A preliminary assessment of the effect of Precision Mineral Supplementation in a Danish test herd with approx. 155 Jersey cows has been made:
As SuMaNu partner, Henning Lyngsø Foged gave a keynote speech on "Synthesizing best practices and technologies for nutrient recovery and circular economy in the Baltic Sea Region" at the ManuREsource 2019 conference, taking place in Hasselt, Belgium, on the 27-28 November 2019. The speech explained about the specific challenges with manure and nutrents in the Baltic Sea macro region, and presented five preliminary recommendations from the SuMaNu project.
As coordinator of Task 2.3 og SuMaNu concerning a gap analysis, we also presented a poster to explain about typical pitfalls leading to gaps between envisaged and realised project impacts.
Thanks to 365FarmNet Group KGaA mbH & Co KG for the opportunity to showcase our IoF2020 - Internet of Food & Farm use case on Precision Mineral Supplementation at Agritechnica 2019 in Hannover, Germany.
There is a strong indication of the angle of repose to be a good indicator for the flowability of dry mineral feed supplements.
Ensuring the practical applicability of Precision Mineral Supplementation within the frames of IoF2020 - Internet of Food & Farm require that the IoT technology is used with mineral feed supplements that freely flows to the dosing aggregates. We decided to make some measurements of the physical properties of mineral feed supplements as we have experienced large variations in the flowability of mineral feed supplements. We wanted to recommend a simple and indirect methods for estimating the flowability of dry mineral feed supplements. The description and results of our experiments appears from an article at ResearchGate.
Analysis of data records from the use of precision mineral supplementation in a Danish, TMR-fed Jersey herd through April 2019 is
The experimental findings are based on a relatively small data set from alone one herd and alone one month, and although the results of the analyses are rather clear, they shuld be confirmed by similar and more in-depth analyses on larger datasets from more herds.
The analyses were made within the frames of Use Case 2.6 concerning Precision Mineral Supplementation under IoF2020 .
There is a high correlation between mineral supply, immune status, disease and welfare in dairy cows. We will increase the awareness of that and demonstrate how precision mineral supplementation can give us better climate and environment, and better welfare among dairy cows, while in the same time increase the competitiveness of dairy cattle production.
As UC2.6 coordinator, Organe Institute was given the opportunity to present our dairy Use Case termed Precision Mineral Supplementation for the other 115 partners from 22 countries at the IoF2020 Partner Event 2019 held in Prague in the days 7-8 March 2019.
The IoF2020 Use Case is based on Pitstop+ technology from MicroFeeder.
Slurry acidification technologies (SATs) have the potential to give a major lift to the economy and the environment in the Baltic Sea Region, and in the same time give substantial greenhouse gas emission reductions. Implementing the potential for use of SATs in the Baltic Sea Region countries would have a positive net economic effect of in total € 2.2 billion per year, to which come an estimated N abatement value of M€ 147 per year related to the aquatic environment, and positive healthcare sector effects in Russia and Belarus. For the entire region, the implementation of slurry acidification in accordance with the estimated, weighed potential of 234 million tonnes of slurry, would annually mean a reduced ammonia emission of 167.1 Kt, and as a result of this a reduced atmospheric N deposition of 56,000 – 91,000 tonnes. In addition, the greenhouse gas emission would be reduced with 1.5 Mt CO2e.
The benefit of using slurry acidification and the need for reducing ammonia emissions is different from country to country. The report recommends on basis of its analyses all EU Member States in the Region to establish expert groups for further analysing the impacts of slurry acidification and ways for its implementation. Belarus and Russia would due to their current policy framework not have the same clear benefit from using slurry acidification.
These are the main conclusions and recommendations of a Baltic Slurry Acidification-report intended for policy makers in ten main Baltic Sea Region countries. The report summarises societal policy objectives and international commitments related to slurry acidification, as well as the business goals of farmers. Country annexes outlines the strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats related to use of slurry acidification in the individual countries, based on results and conclusions of project activities.
The report is edited by Organe Institute as part of the Interreg Baltic co-funded Baltic Slurry Acidification-project.
A just released technical report is analysing the legal framework of slurry acidification technologioes (SATs) in the Baltic Sea Region countries.
The report is produced under coordination and review of Organe Institute as part of the Interreg Baltic co-funded Baltic Slurry Acidification-project.
The legal analysis concludes that only a few, and probably unintended legal barriers exists for use of slurry acidification in Sweden and Germany. All countries could give incentives in the form of equalising slurry acidification with requirements for solid cover on slurry tanks and slurry injection, or by organising earmarked subsidies for slurry acidification.
IoF2020 has approved Precision MIneral Supplementation as a new Use Case of the Internet of Food and Farming 2020 (IoF2020) project, which is financed under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 731884.
The Use Case project runs for two years in 2019 and 2020. Organe Institute ApS is coordinator of the Use Case with Zemnieku Saeima, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences and Lehr- und Versuchszentrum Futterkamp under Landwirtschaftskammer Schleswig-Holstein as partners
An Information Seminar with the title "Solving the ammonia emission problem in the EU" was convened in the Copa-Cogeca Secretariat in Brussels on 26 November 2018.
With ammonia emissions on the rise and NEC targets lurking around the corner, measures to cut emissions are sorely needed. We therefore invited for the seminar to inform, how ammonia emissions from agriculture could be reduced through slurry acidification – an EU-approved Best Available Technique (BAT) that benefits both the farmer and the environment, cutting emissions by 40 to 64 percent and increasing the fertiliser value of slurry.
The seminar included our presentation on "The policy framework and potential to implement slurry acidification in Europe":
A slurry acidification policy roundtable policy discussion was organised at the premises of the Lithuanian Ministry of Agriculture on 7 November 2018 by our Baltic Slurry Acidification project partner, Lithuanian Agricultural Advisory Service. According our analyses of market and policy frameworks parametres, Lithuania is not among the countries with the highest need and potential for use of slurry acidification technologies. However, slurry acidification would due to social benefits have a positive impact on the Lithuanian economiy and we therefore recommend Lithuania to take measures to implement the use of SATs.
The Interreg Baltic-supported platform project SuMaNu, which is an abbreviation for "Sustainable manure and nutrient management for reduction of nutrient loss in the Baltic Sea Region" had a Kick-Off Meeting at the premises of the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) in Helsinki in the days 23 and 24 October 2018. All project partners were present at the meeting as well as Interreg Baltic. The purpose of the Kick-Off included detailed planning of the project execution. A Press Release was issued to inform about the ambitions of the project platform.
We visited Håstrupgård ApS pig breeding farm, and asked Esben Graff about his experiences with in-house acidification, and you can see his answers in this short video (click above).
Danish Environmental Technology Association and Organe Institute organised on 4 September a four hour long roundtable discussion about possibilities and challenges in relation to slurry acidification and its impacts on climate change and air quality.
Brian H. Jacobsen from Copenhagen University and Henning Lyngsø Foged from Organe Institute gave presentations to introduce the subject. The participants had a lively discussion on basis of that.
Roundtable presentations and a memo is available here (all in Danish language):
SuMaNu, which is an abbreviation for the Interreg-Baltic co-funded platform project "Sustainable manure and nutrient management for reduction of nutrient loss in the Baltic Sea Region", has started with participation of Organe Institute.
Click to open a map and see the fields that have been given acidified slurry by use of the pilot investment installations under the Baltic Slurry Acidification project.
This feasibility study report describes the background, conditions, planning issues and expected environmental and economic impacts of seven pilot installations of slurry acidification technology equipment in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany and Sweden.
The seven investment projects have a total budget of M€ 1.3 and is expected to save the environment for about 100 tons nitrogen annually via avoided ammonia evaporation, and the subsequent reduced use of nitrogen mineral fertiliser. The consumed use of sulphuric acid will in all cases replace and save costs for purchase of sulphur mineral fertiliser.
The report aims at providing an impartial, professionally correct and scientifically based technical description of the implications of acidifying half of the slurry in Denmark in the current market and policy context.
The scenario will require investments of € 54 million in tripling the capacity and in addition give annual costs of approximately € 3.9 million. However, political air quality objectives regarding ammonia emissions would be met, emissions to the aquatic environment via atmospheric depositions would be reduced with an amount equivalent to current goals, and a significant contribution made to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The report is in Danish language with an English summary.
Press release (in Danish language):
The market potential for slurry acidification technologies in Baltic Sea Region countries is analysed on basis of nine parameters. The collected and analysed information about the nine parameters is to a large extent providing imperial knowledge that is not found in official records, and have required subjective estimation by project partners and their network. The report concludes that there is an unlocked potential for slurry acidification technologies in most of the Baltic Sea Region countries.
Today, there is a theoretical, weighed potential for SAT installations with a capacity to process 244.5 million tons slurry and other liquid manures in raw and processed form in the Baltic Sea Region. The potential corresponds to an estimated number of 5,252 in-house, 2,750 in-tank and 4,072 in-field SAT installations.
In practice, though, legal and financial incentives and impediments would be decisive for the dissemination of SATs.
Slurry acidification technologies were developed over the last 30 years by the Danish agro-environmental technology innovation environment, and five companies offers commercial solutions for in-house, in-storage and in-field systems. It is well documented through VERA verifications that slurry acidification has a significant reduction effect on ammonia emissions from stables, storages and fields. Less well-documented but unambiguous research results also show a significant effect on greenhouse gas emission reductions, both concerning methane and nitrous oxide. In addition, slurry acidification has a potential for giving positive synergies to biogas production, and accrues substantially to the society via impacts in relation to air quality. The convincing effects have caused EU deeming slurry acidification a compulsory "Best Available Technique" (BAT) in all EU Member States with effect from February 2017, ie. a technique that Member States may condition environmental permits of intensive livestock farms according the IED Directive. Slurry acidification is a key technology in relation to current policies and related objectives regarding ammonia, greenhouse gases, and emissions of nitrogen into the aquatic environment through the background load, although the latter effect is not credited to agriculture. Slurry acidification relates to policies on phasing out the use of fossil fuels, introducing phosphorus fertiliser norms, and expanding the capacity for anaerobic fermentation of manure. Against this background, the purpose of the workshop is to draw up a joint account of a scenario for an increased use of slurry acidification in Denmark, as the workshop involves representatives of the related innovation environment. The resulting report should be used as background material for the policy makers responsible for fulfillment of Danish policy objectives.
Workshop presentations (all in Danish language):
Air quality in the EU is generally progressing according a new report from the European Environment Agency. Our health depends on the quality of the air we breathe. The three largest sources of air pollution are emissions from the transport sector, chimney smoke from combustion in the energy sector and ammonia emissions from farming. After a significant decline from 1990 to 2005, ammonia emissions from farming increased ever since in the Baltic Sea region, where all countries have to reduce emissions to meet their political objectives. The poor air quality is for especially Germany, Poland and Denmark causing high social costs for healthcare according European Science Foundation.
Slurry acidification technologies (SATs) can reduce ammonia emissions from livestock houses, slurry storage tanks and from field application of slurry with 40-70%, depending on the SAT used. SATs are thus efficient in relation to political committments in countries of the Baltic Sea Region as well as in the rest of the EU in relation to the air quality, keeping in mind that agriculture is the source of 93% of all ammonia emissions.
We have in the Interreg Baltic co-funded "Baltic Slurry Acidification"-project issued a policy brief that outlines the potential benefits of SATs, seen from the perspective of the society, farmers and biogas plants.
A delegation of 14 persons from six countries in the Baltic Sea Region, all participants in the Interreg Baltic co-funded project "Baltic Slurry Acidification", visited Denmark from 18-20 May 2016 to study Slurry Acidification Technologies (SAT) in practice. The delegation visited four Danish suppliers, HARSØ, JH Agro, Kyndestof and BioCover and studied their slurry acidification equipment. Information about Ørum Smedens equipent was also given to the participants. Out of 17 partners in the "Baltic Slurry Acidification" project, seven partners has a budget for making an investment in SAT in order to demonstrate and test it at own premises in their home countris, and the study visit helped them to clarify, which SAT that best fit their situation. The tour was organised and conducted by Organe Institute ApS. The photo is from BioCover's part of the programme and taken during a visit to Rønshauge, a Danish pig breeding farm.
International interst for slurry Acidification
Policy brief
NP turnover
SAT providers
Technical report: Market potential analysis - Slurry acidification technologies in the Baltic Sea Region
Workshop at DM&E on 19 Septemebr to discuss a scenario for increased use of slurry acidification in Denmark
Technical report: Feasibility Studies for Pilot Installations
Map of pilot installation activities under Baltic Slurry Acidification
Organe Institute is partner in a new 'SuMaNu' Interreg Baltic co-funded platform project
Roundtable discussion about slurry acidification in relation to climate and air quality
SuMaNu kick off and press release
Slurry acidification policy roundtable discussion in Vilnius
Seminar: Solving the ammonia emission problem in the EU
Pitstop+ is a new IoF2020 Use Case
Technical Report: Legal framework analysis of slurry acidification in the Baltic Sea Region countries
Technical Report: Policy recommendations for supporting SAT implementation
UC2.6 Pitstop+ Precision Mineral Supplementation presented at IoF2020 Partner Event 2019 in Prague
Better welfare for dairy cows with precision mineral supplementation
Experimental findings: Transition dairy cows are happy for getting the opportunity to eat extra mineral feed supplements - all records by box and whisker chart
There is a strong indication of the angle of repose to be a good indicator for the flowability of dry mineral feed supplements
Showcasing Precision Mineral Supplementation at Agritechnica
Use of various processing technologies for livestock manure separation would enable a more balanced fertilisation with manure N and P on farms with a high livestock density
Preliminary assessment of the impact of precision mineral supplementation on dairy cow performance
Danish agricultural biogas production has had double-digit annual growth in the last years as an effect of policies implemented in 2012.
Precision Mineral Supplementation is Use Case 2.6 of the Internet of Food and Farming 2020 (IoF2020) project. IoF2020 has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 731884.
IoF2020 is dedicated to make precision farming a reality by promoting data-driven technology, that can improve the comptetitiveness and sustainability of food and farming. IoF2020 is designed to generate maximum impact right from the outset and in the long-run, bringing closer together and integrating the supply and demand sides of IoT technologies in the agri‐food sector. Read more at the IoF2020 webpage - www.iof2020.eu.
The idea of precision mineral supplementation of dairy cows is completely novel and unique, and no other technology similar to Pitstop+ is found. The use of electronic ear tags for dairy farm management purposes is spreading, and Pitstop+ uses the open standards HDX or FDX for electronic ear tagging based on ISO standard 11784 and 11785 according test methods given by point 7 in ISO standard 24631-1. Furthermore, Pitstop+ uses LoRa wireless networks for communication between the feeders and the master unit, and a management and supervision interface, Pitstop+ Manager, happen e.g. on basis of WiFi connected mobile phones, and cloud-based data storages with synchronisation with Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) data. The whole systems shall work in an environment with high variations in temperatures in a dusty, humid atmosphere with high concentrations of ammonia and other aggressive gases.
The Use Case activities are designed to mature Pitstop+ for exploiting its advanced features as well as its synergies with the existing UC2.3 HERDSMAN+. Establishing test beds in three different regions ensures a range of location-sensitive issues to be clarified, given their diversity in pre-conditions for use of IoT based farming systems. The central goal is to showcase and optimise the Pitstop+ system for commercial use in these three countries / regions to pave the way for access to markets worldwide, or in specific at the main target markets that are specified in our Feasibility Study, whereof Germany potential is one of the largest key markets.
The Use Case project runs for two years in 2019 and 2020. Organe Institute ApS is coordinator of the Use Case with Zemnieku Saeima, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences and Lehr- und Versuchszentrum Futterkamp under Landwirtschaftskammer Schleswig-Holstein as partners.
The Use Case is implemented in close contact with stakeholders, first of all the six dairy farms, where Pitstop+ is demonstrated and trialed, but as well mineral feed suppliers, farm advisory organisations, research, dairies, representatives of IACS registers holding information about dairy cows, and consumers. A central stakeholder is MicroFeeder, which is the company that develops the Pitstop+ technology and will market it in the future.
Information about Use Case activities will be availble from the Pitstop+ webpage as well as from https://www.iof2020.eu/trials/dairy/precision-mineral-feeding and social media.
SuMaNu, which is an abbreviation for the Interreg-Baltic co-funded platform project "Sustainable manure and nutrient management for reduction of nutrient loss in the Baltic Sea Region", has started with participation of Organe Institute.
Interreg-Baltic has supported SuMaNu as well as five other platform projects, which all aims to follow-up on earlier projects in their repective priority area in order to strengthen project impacts and sustainability of project results, in particular by better linking of project results with policies.
The aim of the SuMaNu project platform is to enhance the capacity of authorities, policy makers, farmers and advisors to use and govern the use of nutrients, especially from manure, in a sustainable way and to reduce nutrient leaching. The project also aims to enhance the capacity of the target groups to understand the concept of nutrient recycling. This will be done by summarizing the project results to sciencebased recommendations that will be created in close cooperation with the target groups and communicated via the wide networks of the partnership.
Get a short project presentation sheet here:
The project runs until March 2021, it is led by Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), has a budget of app. € 1 million and has 9 partners.
You find some additional project facts here:
The SuMaNu project, being highly related to policies in the area of nutrient management in farming, including manure management, fits highly the competences of Organe Institute, who participates broadly in the project activities. In specific, Organe Institute will clarify key messages and recommendations of earlier projects, and evaluate the degree of their implementation and reasons for that in the different Baltic Sea Region countries.
Organe Institute's participation in SuMaNu has its basis in our role as work package leader in 'Baltic Slurry Acidification', and Director of Organe Institute, Henning L. Foged, has also been work package leader in the earlier strategic project BalticCOMPASS, been involved in BalticManure, and had a close cooperation with BalticDEAL.
The photo is from BalticCOMPASS, which recommended a wider use of slurry separation, and therefore supported a cooperative of pig-farmers at Bornholm to establish a mobile slurry separation unit.
Baltic Slurry Acidification promotes the implementation of slurry acidification techniques (SAT's) in the region and mitigates thus airborne eutrophication of the Baltic Sea waters and hazardous aerosol formation in the Baltic Sea Region. Livestock manure is the main source of ammonia-nitrogen emissions in the region and, through atmospheric deposition, these emissions account for a significant amount of nitrogen entering the waters. Ammonia emissions also threaten human health through the formation of particulate aerosols, which as a pollutant is estimated to have a very high negative impact on human health. Slurry acidification techniques (SATs) can be used to reduce ammonia losses from livestock manure in livestock housing, manure storages and from the fields during the application of manure. Several pilot SAT installations and field trials around the Baltic Sea region will provide concrete experiences that will be disseminated to stakeholders via field walks, demonstrations and other activities. The project will further clarify technological aspects of SATs, analyze the environmental and economic implications, conduct market analysis and suggest policy recommendations that could help dissemination of SAT technology in the Baltic Sea region.
Baltic Slurry Acidification started in March 2016 and lasts three years, until March 2019.
Baltic Slurry Acidification has status as a flagship project, meaning that it has an acknolwledged role in the implementation of EU's strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. Our monogram for the project signals the connection to livestock production.
Get a short project presentation sheet here:
Read more at the project web site at http://www.balticslurry.eu and follow us at Facebook.
Organe Institute ApS leads WP6 about policies and market analyses. WP6 will do country specific analyses of related policies, legislation, framework conditions and market potentials and will thus clarify the potential for use of Slurry Acidification Technologies (SATs) in the individual Baltic Sea Region (BSR) countries. Danish policies, legislation and support schemes will be a baseline for policies, legislation and support schemes in other project countries, and potential enablers and barriers for the disseminated use of SATs in the Baltic Sea Region countries will be identified. The activities will include investigation of possible work safety related provisions associated with SATs, and exchange of Danish ways to take ' necessary precautions. Market analyses will especially focus on the farming structure and practices that are favouring the use of SATs, such as slurry’s share of produced livestock manure.
The work from WP 2 (Technical Feasibility Studies), WP 3 (Pilot Installations and Demonstrations), WP 4 (Field Trials), and analyses from WP 5 (Environmental and Economic Implications) will support the studies in WP 6. On basis of that, policy recommendations will be formulated and they will provide the foundation for a qualified dialogue with target groups, including authorities, farmers organisations, research, farm advisory services, business and policy makers in the BSR countries concerning the potentials of SATs as instruments for reach of national targets for air and water quality as well as for the economic development of the livestock production.
Roundtables geared towards the target groups will be aimed to stimulate cross-sector and policy oriented dialogue, and to rise the capacity to develop national legislation and support schemes for SATs. Dissemination and communication activities will also comprise articles for the project website and various media, newsletters and presentations at international conferences.
Specific objectives include activities like:
Organe Institute has assisted MicroFeeder to receive funding from the SME Instrument udner EU's Horizon2020 programme for carrying out a Phase 1 Feasibility Study.
Only about 5% of the very best written proposals based on convincing business cases are seleected for funding under the SME Instrument.
Pitstop PLUS is a market disrupting invention that results from rethinking the way dairy cows should be supplemented in the context of increased use of TMR along with increasing productivity.
Click here to read more about Pitstop PLUS
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We undertake agro-food sector related research & innovation activities of general and public interst. As a not-for-profit private research institute that primarily works for public funding, we do according our statutes not pay out profit to the owner.
Our organisation was established on 3 February 2016 with the Danish Business Authority.
