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The agricultural sector is responsible for an important part of Canadian greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, 8 % of the 747 Mt eq. CO emitted each year. The pork industry, a key sector of the agrifood industry, has had a rapid growth in Canada since the middle 1980s. For this industry, slurry storage accounts for the major part of methane (CH) emissions, a GHG 25 times higher than carbon dioxide (CO) on a 100-year time horizon. Intending to reduce these emissions, biofiltration, a process effective to treat CH from landfills and coal mines, could be effective to treat CH from the pig industry. Biofiltration is a complex process that requires the understanding of the biological process of CH oxidation and a control of the engineering parameters (filter bed, temperature, etc.). Some biofiltration studies show that this technology could be used to treat CH at a relatively low cost and with a relatively high purification performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Canada, the piggery industry is an essential part of the agricultural sector, but the main waste product of this industry, swine slurry, is particularly harmful to the environment. The anaerobic storage conditions and the excessive use of slurry for agricultural fertilization contribute, respectively, to the emission of greenhouse gases and to aquatic pollution. This paper provides a review of these environmental concerns and of the existing mitigation technologies. Water pollution from swine slurry is associated with the nutrients it contains, such as nitrogen and phosphorous, while the main greenhouse gases produced by the piggery industry are methane and nitrous oxide. Available technologies can valorize the slurry through agricultural fertilization, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, by limiting nutrient availability for example, or treat the effluents using solid-liquid separation, flaring or biological processes. Specific attention is paid to biofiltration due to its potential to simultaneously treat these two types of pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]