The Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB) is a research institute working at the interface between biological and technical systems. The goal of the ATB is to contribute to food security, animal welfare, climate and environment protection, holistic use of biomass and to transfer knowledge into the economy and the general public, by means of interdisciplinary teams, covering a broad spectrum of methods from natural sciences, economic sciences and engineering. ATB has its main expertise in systems research for sustainable intensification, including livestock production systems, barn climate and emissions, animal health and welfare, environmental impacts, economic efficiency, and emission modelling.

ATB leads task 4.1 of ECONUTRI: “Reducing GHG and NH3 emissions from barns”. Emission mitigation solutions will be tested by the ATB in a real scale case study farm to demonstrate their potential. In collaboration with ILVO, ATB will examine the impact of fast manure removal from dairy and pig barns through high performance floor scraping (including cleaning robots) and manure pit flushing. ATB and ILVO will further develop the OTICE sensor framework (“Online Tool for monitoring Indoor barn Climate, animal stress and Emission levels of air pollutants“) and demonstrate its contribution to emission reductions in pilot trials.