Slashing ammonia pollution through EU innovation

As the EU strives for a climate-neutral future, two pioneering EU-funded projects are showing that agricultural waste can also be a valuable resource.

Ammonia emissions from livestock farming are a significant contributor to air pollution and soil acidification, and traditional manure management often allows these gases to escape into the environment.

To combat this, the LIFE Green Ammonia project, based in Spain, uses cutting-edge technology to transform ammonia emissions from the pig and poultry industries. It utilises a specialised filtration and recovery system designed to capture ammonia from liquids, such as manure, and the atmosphere, without allowing the liquid itself to pass through the system.

The gas-permeable membranes that it uses act as a filter, similar to a sieve, capturing ammonia emissions directly from animal housing and manure storage tanks. Once captured, the gas is converted into ammonium sulphate, a high-quality commercial fertiliser.

The aim is to separate livestock production from environmental degradation. By targeting a 50% reduction in ammonia emissions from stored manure and a 35% reduction within animal buildings, LIFE Green Ammonia provides farmers with two benefits. It creates a cleaner environment for both animals and workers while generating a secondary product that adds economic value to waste management practices.

A robotics revolution

Further north, in the Netherlands, the LIFE CMCD (Closing the Mineral Cycle in Dairy farming) project is reinventing dairy farming.

Ammonia is formed when cow urine and excrement mix. LIFE CMCD stops this chemical reaction before it has even begun by using specially designed robots to segregate waste at the source. These robots navigate the barn floors, keeping liquids and solids separate so that ammonia never has the chance to form.

The purpose of this so-called segregation at source is to close the nitrogen loop. In doing so, pure nutrients are reclaimed, and farmers can reduce their dependency on expensive, energy-intensive artificial fertilisers.

This optimisation of on-site waste processing achieved a reduction of 558 tonnes of CO2 emissions over four years across five dairy livestock farms. These sites were located in the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Denmark to prove the technology's replicability across different EU regions.

By scaling gas-permeable membranes and robotic waste separation, LIFE Green Ammonia and LIFE CMCD have turned a major pollutant into a circular resource. Both prove that meeting the EU’s 2026 ammonia NEC Directive reduction targets, as well as those in the newly expanded Industrial Emissions Directive, is not just possible, but profitable.

Their success represents an important part of future innovations in livestock farming. By combining Spanish membrane technology with Dutch robotics, Europe is demonstrating how technological innovation can turn environmental challenges into circular economy successes.

Learn more about these pioneering technologies at LIFE Green Ammonia and LIFE CMCD.

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