Environmental footprint of zinc supplementation in animal nutrition

Alessandra Monteiroa and S. Durosoya

a Animine, France

amonteiro@animine.eu

Available Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies have shown that feed production significantly contributes to the environmental footprint of edible animal products and is therefore an important element to take into account when considering mitigation options. For this reason, the Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR) of animal feed was approved by the EU commission in 2018. However, for feed additives such as trace minerals, the models of their production process are still being improved. As minerals are well known as the greatest contributors to ecotoxicological impacts, the feed industry’s commitment to generate data on feed additives will be important in the near future. The objective of this study was thus to develop a high-quality dataset for the potentiated zinc oxide source named HiZox® (Animine, France) in compliance with PEFCR requirements. Secondly, we compared our results with those obtained for other zinc sources: zinc sulfate and standard zinc oxide. The PEF study was based on the method as described in the PEFCR Feed for food-producing animals, and the experimental unit was 1 kg of zinc used in animal nutrition. The system boundaries were from cradle-to-plant, and the environmental indicators included all PEF impact categories, as well as the toxicity ones. The modelling was performed in the SimaPro version 8.5 and the latest PEF datasets and the EF method were used. The results showed an impact on freshwater ecotoxicity of 12 CTUe per kg of zinc supplied in the diet. For resource use, mineral and metals, the impact was 1.45E-03 kg Sb-eq. For other categories such as climate change and acidification (terrestrial and freshwater), the impact was 4.32 kg of CO2-eq. and 0.10 mol H+-eq., respectively. For freshwater and terrestrial eutrophication, the impact was 1.84E-04 kg P-eq. and 7.52E-02 mol N-eq., respectively. When we compared the results obtained for the three zinc sources, zinc sulfate presented the highest impacts for freshwater ecotoxicity (+89% on average) in comparison with zinc oxide sources (HiZox® and standard zinc oxide). This result could be due to the additional treatment of zinc-containing material with sulfuric acid in its production. However, after considering the animal production system and manure disposal in the boundaries of the LCA study, the results could change drastically mainly on toxicity-related categories, which strongly depend on metal speciation. As perspective, the speciation of zinc in animal wastes could be accounted in the LCA, providing a better assessment on the toxicity impact of HiZox® in the receiving environment.

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