SOP is proud to announce the first of several publications that focus on faster action for climate emissions mitigation and agricultural resilience.

A research published on the scientific journal “Sustainability” (https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/18/4998 ) on September 12, 2019 and carried out by the University of Milan (Borgonovo et al.) evaluates the efficacy of SOP LAGOON, the additive for liquid manure that is helping farmers make intensive farming more sustainable.

When added to dairy slurry storage pits, SOP Lagoon can reduce ammonia (NH3) and GHG emissions, namely methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, while lowering nitrates accumulation.

The study was performed on fresh liquid manure, sourced from a commercial dairy farm, which is representative of typical dairy operations. Results starting from day 4 after the first application in the manure are as follow:

• Ammonia (NH₃) reduced by 100%
• Methane (CH₄) reduced by 21.5%
• Nitrous Oxide (N₂O) reduced by 100%
• Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) reduced by 22.9%

 “These results, escalated to a global scale, could lead to a significant change in the world of animal husbandry, making the management of sewage sustainable and especially limiting emissions of ammonia, one of the main precursors of air pollution (PM 2.5) that kills 400,000* Europeans every year. ” 

Marco Poggianella, Co-Founder and CEO of SOP

(* source: https://ipes-food.org/_img/upload/files/CFP_ExecSummary_IT.pdf)

Moreover, manure treated with SOP LAGOON can effectively replace significant quantities of synthetic fertilizers, decreasing therefore agitation, spread and fertilization costs and yielding concrete economic advantages for farmers.

The publication highlights the positive impact of SOP Lagoon on intensive farming:

"Compared to other additives studied, such as lactic acid or phosphogypsum, the additive studied here proved to be able to simultaneously mitigate NH₃, N₂O, CH₄, and CO₂ emissions from slurry storage.

It is also important to notice that these results were obtained with a much lower amount of product than that proposed in other studies for the other amendments: the additive under examination here was applied 3 times at 4 g/m3 while other materials were used at a minimum of 3-10% of manure wet weight, proving, thus, to be a scalable solution.

The additive was able to control NH₃ and N₂O emissions, without accumulating nitrates. The use of slurry treated with this additive as organic fertilizer could be beneficial for the environment since its NO₃-N content appears to be lower. In addition, the use of treated slurry avoids the use and the purchase of mineral fertilizers, thus resulting in an economic advantage for the farmer."

 After reading the publication, many within the international scientific community have expressed positive opinions, among which David Grimes (in charge of the Meteorological Service of Canada since July 2006, former Assistant Deputy Minister of Environment and Climate Change in Canada, President of the WMO between 2011 and 2019, the World Meteorological Organization mother of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), an organization that won the Nobel Prize in 2007):, who stated:

“There has been much said about the implications of agriculture on climate change and sustainability. Including by the IPCC. These results show that ingenuity of private sector, i.e. SOPin turning the corner”

David Grimes

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