Advanced and Innovative Livestock Waste Treatment Technologies for Agricultural Sustainability

Livestock feeding operations worldwide have become more confined to fulfill the dietary requirements of the increasing population and ultimately generate an enormous amount of livestock manure both in solid and liquid forms. Manure and wastewater generated from confined livestock farming practices contain high concentrations of nutrients, organic pollutants, suspended solids, and pathogenic microorganisms which has numerous and widespread environmental and human health impacts. However, livestock waste streams have the potential to play a key role in ensuring environmental as well as agricultural sustainability if treated and managed properly. Therefore, livestock farming operations now are more proactive in managing solid manure and handling generated wastewater and its safe disposal.

Land spreading of solid and liquid livestock manure is the most widely employed manure management strategy. It can improve soil properties by supplying nutrients required for crop growth and increasing soil organic matter contents. Nevertheless, an excess of livestock manure is often applied to the soil which leads to nutrient accumulation in the soil. Although a certain amount of the nutrients available in livestock manure can be utilized by plants for regulating different physiological activities, the surplus nutrients eventually end up in the surrounding ecosystem and cause environmental pollution. Therefore, Application rates that are not compatible with agriculture, must be avoided. To improve the sustainability of manure management, researchers globally are focusing on developing and testing different biological, physical, and chemical processes at different scales to treat the highly polluted livestock waste streams over the past few decades.

The growing interest in solid and liquid livestock manure treatment processes along with the increasing concern regarding agricultural sustainability are the driving forces for developing advanced and innovative livestock waste treatment technologies.

The aim of this Research Topic is to cover novel, promising, and contemporary research trends in the livestock waste treatment and management field. Areas to be covered in this Research Topic may include, but are not limited to:

• Advanced and innovative manure treatment technologies
• Process development and optimization
• Resource recovery and energy production
• Odor reduction strategies
• Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions
• Waste treatment strategies’ impact on crops

Keywords: Livestock wastewater treatment, manure management, waste valorization, agricultural sustainability, resource circular economy

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