A new project to harness ammonia from livestock production has been awarded funding from Defra/UKRI. Launching on 1st October, the PigProGrAm will unite farming and engineering expertise to demonstrate how so-called ‘green’ ammonia can be harvested as a potential source of hydrogen to fuel machinery and transportation.

Animal systems are a significant source of harmful ammonia emissions, which can negatively impact biodiversity through nitrogen accumulation on land and acidification of water courses. The UK livestock industry is committed to contributing to ‘global cooling’ by removing more carbon than it uses. This innovative project will help it become more sustainable and reduce its environmental impact by targeting ammonia emissions which could be used to generate hydrogen – a valuable resource to replace fossil fuels.

Key focuses of the project include:

  • replacing carbon-intensive livestock feeds with human food co-products such as potato peelings and spent grains from alcohol production. This reduces land use for growing feedstuffs by 50% and cuts 25% of the carbon currently needed to produce meat and milk.
  • harvesting of ammonia, methane, and urea from manure to measure potential yields of hydrogen for fuel, water for irrigation and dry fertilizer with low residual soil build-up properties. This could remove 50% of the carbon associated with meat and milk production.

Future use of hydrogen to replace fossil fuels as a power source for farm machinery could take out the remaining 25% of the carbon involved in meat and dairy production.

The PigProGrAm’s overall aim is to substantially reduce the environmental impact of livestock farming, while evaluating an additional source of hydrogen to decarbonise fuel.

The research project includes six partners (Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB), Beta Technology, Duynie, Projex Solutions, the University of Leeds, and a commercial unit in North Yorkshire). This combines expertise in livestock farming, sustainable animal feed, chemical engineering, and smart agricultural systems.

Project Leader Richard Cinderey of Beta Technology explains: “Harvesting ammonia from livestock waste not only reduces local environmental impacts but provides an exciting opportunity to contribute to reducing climate change. The government’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution promotes the growth of low-carbon hydrogen as part of the move towards net-zero by 2050. Ammonia is a carbon-free molecule with a high weight fraction of hydrogen making it an excellent candidate for its storage and transportation.”

PigProGrAm, (Developing a Circular Economy for UK Pig Production Through Green Ammonia Harvesting), is a new project which has received £600k of funding under the government’s Farming Innovation Pathway competition. The competition is a partnership between UKRI’s Transforming Food Production (TFP) challenge and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra) Farming Innovation Programme (FIP).