Agricultural wastewater poses serious risks to the environment due to how it is injudiciously used and managed. We investigated the use of pomegranate peel powder (PPP) to adsorb ammonium ions from milking parlor wastewater, which is applied as a nitrogen source for cropland fertilization despite its environmental ramifications. As a valueless by-product of juice and jam industries, PPP shows promising features and characteristics as a potential bio-adsorbent for ammonium nitrogen removal and recovery. The surface characterization of PPP was performed by zeta potential measurement and attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) analysis. The adsorption studies were carried out by batch experiments where the initial ammonium nitrogen (NH4–N) concentration of studied wastewater was 80 mg/L. The effects of different operational parameters, such as pH, adsorbent dose, contact time, stirring speed, and temperature, were investigated. From kinetic studies, the equilibrium time was found to be 120 min, achieving an 81.8% removal synonym of ~2.5 mg/g NH4–N uptake. The adsorption isotherm data fitted well with Langmuir model with correlation (R2) > 0.99. Meanwhile, the kinetics followed pseudo-second order model with correlation (R2) > 0.99.

Sustainable water management is one of the biggest challenges in the 21st century as availability of fresh water resources is under depletion. Growing population, extreme weather conditions (drought, fire, flood), and increasing global food demand all result in higher water consumption by humans. Assessing qualitative and quantitative deterioration of fresh water supplies is crucial in water scarcity areas. By identifying blue, green and grey water components, water use can be assessed in a more comprehensive way. Water use assessment on a dairy farm is influenced by several factors such as chosen breed, herd size, keeping, feeding and milking technology. Productivity level of milking cows, amount of daily milking and type of litter (straw or liquid manure) have impact on water use by technology and cattle. If these factors are assessed and their proportion within the total water use is identified or calculated, dairy farmers are able to analyze water management precisely and shift to more sustainable solutions. The aim of this research is to analyze and to compare the impact of different keeping systems, i.e., traditional and modern, and milking technologies, i.e., robotic milking system, parallel and polygon parlors, on the water use of dairy farms to give a guide to dairy experts and to find opportunities where water recycling/reuse might be applicable.

Sustainability of water use has got into focus recently, as availability of fresh water resources is under depletion. Population growth, extreme weather conditions (drought), increasing global meat demand all results in higher water consumption of humanity and ecosystem. Water footprint is a promising indicator, which assesses both qualitative and quantitative deterioration of fresh water supplies. By identifying blue, green and grey water components, water use can be assessed in a more comprehensive way. Furthermore impact assessment of different components during production and processing let us identify crucial points of water use, where more efficient solution should be found. As a consequence of a more conscious and sustainable water use assessment considering water footprint, there is a chance, that future generations will inherit fresh water supplies at least in the same condition as we got it from our ancestors.

Unpredictable weather conditions urge us to find sustainable water management solutions. This research gives examples for dairy farmers on how to assess water use, calculate water footprint, and find water-saving opportunities. Three large-scale Hungarian dairy farms were selected to assess water use and water footprint (WF) based on characteristics of which this research's hypothesis; there is a correlation between milking technology and WF. WF of feeding was excluded from this research. In a farm using a parallel milking system (Farmpl), the amount of service water, and thus the footprint of blue water was the highest, more than twice at the polygon (Farmpoly) or robotic (Farmrob) milking parlor service water. The milking robot was less advantageous in water use than polygon milking. Gray water footprint was the most unfavorable for Farmrob. If blue, green, and grey WFs are clarified within a farm, it will be easier to investigate the water uses of dairy farms and assess the ratio of each water category. These data can serve as the basis for dairy farmers dealing with Holstein Friesian cattle for assessment of their water management. The novelty of this research is that not any study has investigated the relationship between milking technology and WF.

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