GREEN PIG

The GreenPig project transforms pig urine into green hydrogen for sustainable mobility, within a global circular economy approach, recovering 100% of by-products.

GreenPig is composed of several sub-sections:

-          Livestock buildings

-          A building for processes such as urine filtration, ammonia stripping, electrolysis and auxiliary activities (compression, storage…),

-          PV panels on the building, whose electricity will be self-consumed by the process.

The aim of the project:

→     Stabilise employment in a rural area,

→     Guarantee responsible production respecting the animals and the environment,

→     Contribute to the development of carbon-free mobility in central Brittany

Project objectives:

• Techniques: Use pig urine to produce 70,000 kg of green H2/year and 145t of ammonium sulphate/year. Reusing 66% of the water contained in the urine.

• Energy related:

-    Produce green H2 (200 kg of green H2/day),

-    Increase the yield of the electrolyser (Reuse 100% of the electrolyser’s waste heat for stripping the ammonia),

- Produce and 100% self-consume PV electricity (production 420 MWh)

• Environmental:   

Completely eliminate the ammonia emissions from livestock (recovery and use of 100% of the ammonia contained in the urine by stripping and transforming into green fertiliser), aiming to:

- reduce the pollution of groundwater tables (100% of excretions will be transformed into energy),

- reduce the carbon footprint per kilo of pork produced (20% reduction of the existing carbon footprint [currently at 2.6 kg eq.CO2/kg of pork]),

- but also, to initiate the deployment of H2 mobility in central Brittany (Creation of 3 H2 stations in Saint Brieux), and to produce oxygen through electrolysis (1500 kg of O2/day Eq. to a 56 ha forest)

• User involvement: Raising the awareness of the public with a GreenPig visitor circuit and a glass wall to make the process visible from outside. More globally the project aims to deploy the hydrogen mobility industry in Brittany.

• Economic: Construction of a viable and duplicable business model (Creation of a project company with a consortium of partners, Purchase of green electrons)

• Industrial: Create a local energy loop, combining the production and storage of green H2 (production of 200 kg/day of green H2, production of 145t of ammonium sulphate per year),

In the long term: provide an industrial agricultural process respecting the environment and animal welfare (Production of 10,000 “GreenPigs”)

•  Commercial: create a new range respecting the welfare of the pigs and the environment, involving the creation of a GreenPig certification. But also, to create a production-use system for green H2 and green ammonia in central Brittany.

Added value of the project:

This project is a local hydrogen loop in line with a global circular economy process. It perpetuates employment in a rural area, respects animal welfare and the environment. It encourages carbon-free mobility in central Brittany, includes water recycling and the production and self-consumption of electricity. It is replicable internationally.