Greenhouse gas mitigation using poultry litter management techniques in Bangladesh Brijesh Mainali * , Saad Been Emran, Semida Silveira Energy and Climate Studies, KTH- Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden article info Article history: Received 12 August 2016 Received in revised form 20 March 2017 Accepted 23 March 2017 Available online 27 March 2017 Keywords: GHG emission Poultry farm Litter management Anaerobic digester Biogas Slurry abstract Poultry activities have expanded significantly in Bangladesh in recent years. The litter generated from rural poultry farms is often dumped in low ground neighboring areas resulting in greenhouse gas emissions, as well as water and air pollution. This study estimates the GHG emissions of a typical rural layer poultry farm in Bangladesh, and identifies the GHG emissions reduction potential when poultry litter management techniques are used to produce biogas, generating electricity and bio-fertilizer. Life- cycle assessment (LCA) has been used for a systematic evaluation of GHG-emissions considering the local supply chain in a typical rural layer poultry farm. The analysis shows that the GHG-emissions at the poultry farm amount to 1735 KgCO 2eq /10000 eggs produced if the litter is untreated. With the instal- lation of an anaerobic digester, the emission intensity could be reduced by 65% if the gas is used to replace LPG for cooking purposes. If 100% digested slurry is utilized as bio-fertilizer, the emissions in- tensity could be further reduced by 17 times compared to the case without slurry utilization. These results justify the consideration of national programs to improve conditions in poultry farms in Bangladesh. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In Bangladesh, poultry production and commercialization has grown at an average annual rate of 20% since the early 1990s, despite the bird flu that hit the industry in 2007, 2009 and 2011. The livestock sub-sector contributed 5.8% of GDP in the fiscal year 2010e2011 [1]. Small poultry farms have been a profitable business enhancing the overall rural economy e the average cost benefit ratio of small poultry farms with layer chicken production varies between 1.15 and 1.26 [2,3]. Farms are now using improved ge- netics, feeds and management practices to increase productivity and profitability [4,5]. But, despite many improvements and ben- efits to the rural economy, poultry farms also cause severe envi- ronmental problems viz. greenhouse gas emissions, and water and air pollution [6,7]. In fact, agriculture is the major contributor (75 MtCO 2 e) of GHG emissions in Bangladesh, or 39% of all emissions [8]. Approximately 22000 tons of litter is produced each day from 116000 poultry farms [9]. Conventionally, this litter is dumped in low ground neighboring areas [10]. The proper management of these poultry farms is important not only for food security and reduction of malnutrition (SDG 2) but also for climate change mitigation (SDG 13). Lowering carbon emissions from waste by using waste-to-fuel technologies is among the priorities of Ban- gladesh's Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) and proposed Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA) [11,12]. A better understanding of the context in which poultry farms operate in the country and the potential benefits that can be accrued can help define specific actions to mitigate their environ- mental impact both globally and locally. The environmental problems associated with poultry farms have been documented in case studies from various countries [7,13e18]. Some studies have analyzed manure management of poultry farms and the use of slurry as a source of nutrients to enrich soils [10,19]. The utilization of the waste for energy recovery from waste, for example, in the form of biogas, improves waste disposal and contributes to reducing GHG emissions [9,20]. More recently, emissions reduction through transition to organic crop, livestock management practices, and use of litter as a fuel instead of using it as fertilizer has been studied [17,18]. However, many of these studies have been conducted in developed countries and modern and well managed livestock farms. * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: brijesh.mainali@energy.kth.se, brijeshmainali@hotmail.com (B. Mainali). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Energy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.03.103 0360-5442/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Energy 127 (2017) 155e166