Life cycle assessment of pig production in Italy considering a wet scrubber ammonia abatement system

Ammonia (NH3) is the most common pollutant in the pig’s environment. This study aims to provide an initial assessment of the environmental impact of a farm producing heavy pigs where a wet acid scrubber for NH3 abatement was installed. The Life Cycle Assessment approach was applied. 1 kg of live weight was selected as Functional Unit. Two alternative scenarios were considered. In the baseline scenario (BS) the air was not treated, while in alternative one (AS) a wet acid scrubber was adopted. Using the characterization factors reported by the midpoint ILCD method 12 different impact categories were evaluated. The outcomes of this study highlighted how the best solution depends from the selected impact category. Indeed, the AS was the best one for “particulate matter formation”, “acidification”, “terrestrial eutrophication” and “marine eutrophication”, the categories influenced by NH3 emissions, and the worst for the other ones due to the higher energy and resource consumption related to the construction, maintenance, and operation of the scrubber.