Spatiotemporal distribution, environmental risk and carbon emission reduction potential of livestock manure in Shaanxi Province, China

Highlights

● Production, distributions and environmental risks of LM in Shaanxi were studied.

● Energy utilization and carbon emission reduction potentials of LM in Shaanxi were estimated.

● LM in Shaanxi reached 4.64 × 10⁶ t in 2021 with cattle and pig manure as the primary sources.

● LM is concentrated in northern Shaanxi and the eastern part of Hanzhong.

● Volumes of LM in Ankang and Hanzhong posed potential N and P pollution risks.

● LM energy potential and carbon emission reduction potential are 1.2 × 10¹¹ MJ and 22%.

Abstract

Shaanxi is a leading province in animal husbandry (AH) in China. However, the lack of provincial information on the characteristics and utilization potential of livestock manure (LM) hinders crucial management decisions. Therefore, we investigated the spatiotemporal distribution, availability and biogas potential of LM in Shaanxi, and examine the carbon emission reduction potential of AH. There has been a 1.26-fold increase in LM quantities in Shaanxi over the past 35 years, reaching 4635.6 × 10⁴ t by 2021. LM was mainly concentrated in northern Shaanxi and the eastern part of Hanzhong. Cattle and pig manure were the primary sources of LM, with the average LM land-load of 14.57 t·ha⁻¹ in 2021. While the overall AH in Shaanxi has not exceeded the environmental capacity, the actual scales of AH in Ankang and Hanzhong have already surpassed the respective environmental capacities, posing a higher risk of N and P pollutions. In 2021, the estimated biogas energy potential of LM was 1.2 × 10¹¹ MJ. From 2012 to 2021, the average carbon emission reduction potential in Shaanxi was 22%, with an average potential scale of 10%. The results of this research provide valuable data and policy recommendations for promoting the intensive use of LM and reducing carbon emissions in Shaanxi.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Livestock manure / emission estimation / N and P loads / biogas potential / carbon emission reduction

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32172679 and 31902122).

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Mengyuan Qiao, Jianchun Zhu, Ronghua Li, Junting Pan, Ran Xiao, Hailong Wang, Kuok Ho Daniel Tang, and Zengqiang Zhang declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2024. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)