Background
Aims
Horse manure is a resource, a resource sometimes left unused, and there are a lot of horse manure in Sweden. A lot of horse manure is used by someone else, primarily farmers. A small proportion of the horse manure is either stored indefinitely or dumped in the forest, neither is a good solution.
Nutrients leeching into water ways risk causing eutrophication issues. The nutrients can be recycled from the horse manure back to plants when it is used as fertilisers on fields and gardens or as soil improvement.
But sometimes the properties of horse manure or the distance to farmland makes it difficult to find a solution for the manure.
This thesis’ goal is to learn about:
- Today’s horse manure handling
- Find out how well horse keepers and horse manure users needs match, and to learn from their experiences
- The potential future.
- Investigating what would happen if optimal distribution of horse manure in Sweden was a reality. (It being transported from where it is in excess to where it is needed for crops)
- Investigating the biogas potential of Sweden’s horse manure