Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - HybridFarm (Eco-innovative housing solution for efficient production of slaughterpigs with limited environmental impact.)

Teaser

Production of pig meat has intense environmental burden both in the local neighbor population and in overall air pollution impact. This is our drive to develop novel and disruptive solutions towards a more intelligent, efficient and sustainable pig production. A constant...

Summary

Production of pig meat has intense environmental burden both in the local neighbor population and in overall air pollution impact. This is our drive to develop novel and disruptive solutions towards a more intelligent, efficient and sustainable pig production. A constant market drive to increase production efficiency shall not be contra dictionary to society demands for an environmentally cleaner and more animal- friendly pig farming industry. Succeeding with an innovative pig production concept which at same time offers bigger production with less input and less pollution is success for the society as well as for the pig production industry.
Main objectives important for the society:
Ammonia is one of the key air polluting elements from pig farming activities and creates a safety hazard for both the workers and the animals. Furthermore, it poses a permanent problem to the surrounding population, fauna and flora. By reducing the environmental impact it is possible to increase the pig production having positive effect on economic growth and job creation. The HybridFarm is focused on new and more energetically efficient housing solutions – actually will employment of the patent pending Hybrid Ventilation concept save not less than 60 pct. of energy and by this reducing the carbon footprint.
Animal welfare has become a topic of public concern and media attention. HybridFarm will demonstrate that improving of animal welfare can go along with streamlining of the production process.
The HybridFarm will contribute to a more sustainable and resource-efficient production of pigs, leaving room for a higher production but with less input and less pollution.
Main objectives of the HybridFarm project:
Objective 1: Build two IntelliFarm barns for demonstration. Since July 2017 the two barns are fully constructed and fully equipped with the new IntelliFarm technologies and the two barns are today successfully producing (20.000 slaughter pig per year) each. The showcasing was started 20 months ago and is developing positively.
Objective 2: During testing of the two IntelliFarm barns the testing protocols for VERA certification will be undertaken. This certification will allow entering key markets with a competitive edge.
Objective 3: Continuous optimization of the performance of all the technical elements. The optimization of the climate control and the hybrid ventilation systems will be of critical importance for the overall performance of the Intellifarm.
Objective 4: Update the market strategy and business plan. Introduction on key markets (DK, GER, GB, NL, Poland and Sweden) will be focused.

Work performed

Activities in the WPs since project start (1st August 2015):
WP1 - Project management
WP2- Concept customization
Full design with technical calculations. This includes the ongoing optimization of the planned construction process compared to original ideas.
Full license package comprising environmental permit, building permit, fire approval, sewer approval and various dispensations due to the very large size of the barn. Communication with municipalities to achieve understanding of the use of special permits from governmental environmental authority relating to IntelliFarm technologies in relation to the use of known standard solutions.
WP3 – Intellifarm construction.
Construction of the 2 barns started in September 2016 and terminated in June 2017. The construction period required much time for the actual construction process and installation of technical equipment. It is important to anticipate potential conflicts in the location of various equipment, particularly in the case of high-technology systems like IntelliFarm. The most important processes and solutions that have been worked on include 9 new products, technologies and construction methods.
WP4 – Technology optimization.
We have worked extensively with optimization of IntelliFarm technologies. We have focused on the main technologies, which are Hybrid ventilation, Agri Airclean and SmartFarm. The most important optimizations done, are: 1. Control of CO2 concentration in the animal occupied zone,2. Optimization of the operation of the Agri Air cleaner, 3. General improvement of the SmartFarm control system.
4. Upsizing and improvement of the graphic display on the control units of SmartFarm inviting the end-user to do more monitoring of the indoor climate while staying in the barn.
WP5 – VERA certification. Preparation and facilitating the test. Communication with authorities about the final certification. The testing procedure was started in October 2017 and the testing terminated by end of September 2018. Seges, the company in charge of the official testing, delivered the testing reports and the reports will hereafter be checked by The Danish Environmental Protection Agency and Agrifarm will obtain the official approval of the technologies.
WP6 – Exploitation, Dissemination and Communication.
In the past period we had a lot of activities dissemination activities also outside Denmark. We made a lot of research in many countries by reading, speaking with contacts, participating in fairs, conferences, and promotion trip. We have most places seen great interest for our IntelliFarm concept. We attended 6 fairs in Sweden, Spain, France, Germany, Denmark and China. We participated at conferences in Denmark and England and had meetings with many stakeholders in Denmark and abroad. We did a lot of showcasing at the 2 IntelliFarm barns. A surprisingly large number of Danish stakeholders visited us here, but also stakeholders from Sweden, Germany, Poland, England and China visited the showcasing barns.

Final results

\"The testing of the IntelliFarm pigbarns, have been terminated and the results from this testing have been reported by the certified company. The behavior of the pigs prove a very good animal welfare and the high daily gain of the pigs (1000-1100 grams), the mortality rate of only 1.5% and the feed conversion efficiency (down to 2.35 kg feed per kg body weight gain) - prove the same. This is mutual benefit for pigs and farmers.

The test of the air cleaning technology - Agri Airclean proved an amazing high cleaning effect of 91% to 96% for ammonia and 84% for odor emissions. In combination with IntelliFarm pigbarn having a stripping effect of 83% and 70% for respectively ammonia and odor emission, the reduction of emissions from the total reduction process is 76% and 59% for respectively ammonia and odor emission. It is important to mention that this high effect is achieved by cleaning only 15-17% of the exhausted air. The technology is catching the major part of the emission picking it up at the source by only using a small amount of air. This is setting new standards for effective reducing of emissions from animal housing seen from a low cost point of view.

The environmental impact of the Intellifarm barn in combination with Agri Air Clean on the surroundings are amazingly low. This is definitely the state of the art - and there is no knowledge of other environmental technologies that, achieve this high efficiency on a low cost basis.

A new technology of IntelliFarm finisher barn - \"\"automatic frequent manure discharge\"\" - secures a reduced methane emission of 50%, which makes the IntelliFarm barn an efficient climate technology.

The Hybridfarm project increased the number of leads from outside Denmark dramatically - actually from zero before the project to about 30 as per today.


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Website & more info

More info: https://agrifarm.dk.