Evaluating Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Methods for Methane Emission Estimate From Lagoon‐Based Swine Manure Management Systems
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: ABSTRACT To support national estimates of methane (CH4) emissions from manure management systems, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) proposed guidelines that include three tiers, of which Tier 1 and Tier 2 methodologies are the most used. The choice of each methodology is often driven by data availability. The application of the IPCC Tier 1 approach uses default emission factors and requires less data compared to IPCC Tier 2, which is considered a more advanced methodology. Nevertheless, no study has addressed the implications of the methodology choice on the estimation of CH4 emissions from swine manure management systems. Subsequently, there is barely any quantitative information on the discrepancies to expect when using the IPCC Tier 1 or Tier 2 approach for estimating CH4 emissions from significant sources such as open‐air swine waste treatment lagoons. Hence, this study used the IPCC Tier 1 and Tier 2 methodologies to estimate CH4 emissions from feeder‐to‐finish swine waste treatment lagoons across the North Carolina region. Precisely, updated IPCC guidelines were applied to farm, county, and state level data of feeder‐to‐finish swine farms to quantify CH4 emissions from open‐air anaerobic swine waste treatment lagoons. Results show that IPCC Tier 2's estimates of CH4 emissions are higher, sustaining a discrepancy of 6.7% between the two IPCC Tiers’ methodologies. Quantitatively, the differences between the two IPCC tiers’ estimates totaled 7320 Mg CH4/year (197640 Mg CO2 equivalent/year) at the state level and were unequally distributed among counties and farms. Nevertheless, a comparative analysis highlighted a meaningful contrast between the IPCC Tiers estimation per swine head or unit animal weight and direct measurements of swine lagoons’ CH4 emissions in North Carolina. The discrepancies are likely due in large part to sources of errors in the direct measurements, suggesting the need for advanced techniques for in situ CH4 emission measurements. The study highlights the trade‐off related to the emission estimation approaches, and the information reported could be useful to better understand CH4 emission inventories.
Source: Environmental Quality Management
DOI: 10.1002/tqem.70079
Institution: Agricultural Research Service
Language: English
Subfield: Building and Construction
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4408855466