The EU trend towards concentration and intensification of livestock, in particular pig farming, has resulted in increased burdens related to waste management (increased water, soil and air ammonia pollution) as well as increased difficulties to adhere to EU environmental legislation. Consortium SMEs have identified a clear need to find a cost effective, carbon neutral way of eliminating inassimilable ammonia to prevent environmental pollution and reduce costs of waste disposal for the farmers. Most existing manure treatment processes do not eliminate ammonia from the waste. The proposed PLASMANURE project will transform excess ammonia found in pig waste into an environmentally neutral product in a simple, on-site, cost-efficient manner, without intervention of sensitive biological methods. The technology will further enhance existing treatments by facilitating the oxidation of ammonia coming from pig manure into nitrogen gas and water vapour that can be released into the atmosphere, causing no negative environmental impact. This technology will focus solely on the ammonia elimination stage. The commercial object of this proposal is to develop a cost-effective optimized plasma-catalyst reactor for manure wastes that will result in direct economic benefits and improve the competitiveness of consortium partners by reducing costs associated with ammonia fixing and separation strategies (pH control, stripping-scrubbing sequences, etc.) needed in manure treatment. By optimizing steps in waste processing, Plasmanure will also result in savings on processing equipment and time. Plasmanure technology will also significantly reduce the costs associated with regeneration of regions affected by acid rain and eutrophication and, combined with existing treatment systems, will result in new market opportunities, and competitive product differentiation.

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