Greenhouse gas emissions from livestock waste: China evaluation

Greenhouse gases (GHG), including CH4 and CO2, are emitted from livestock. The quantity of GHG from different animal manure treatment is estimated in this paper, based on animal quantity from China Yearbook 2004, and the factors affected GHG emission from different animals and different manure-management system. It showed that GHG emission from animal manure could be greatly decreased by anaerobic treatment. About 50% of GHG could be reduced if all the livestock manure were treated by anaerobic process. At the same time, 10 million tons of CH4, which is equal to about 50 to 60 million tons of mineral coal, would be produced, assuming efficiency of coal utilization is 50%.