Ammonia Emissions from Swine Houses in the Southeastern United States

Abstract

Ammonia (NH3) from confined animal feeding operations is emitted from several sources including lagoons, field applications, and houses. This paper presents studies that were conducted to evaluate NH3 emissions from swine finisher and sow animal houses in the southeastern USA. Management and climate variables including animal weight, feed consumption, housing gutter water temperature, total time fans operated per day, house air temperature, house ambient NH3 concentration, and animal numbers were measured to determine their individual and combined effect on NH3 emissions. Ammonia emissions varied on daily and seasonal bases with higher emissions during warmer periods. For finishers, the summertime housing emissions on a per-animal basis were 2.4 times higher than wintertime (7.0 vs. 3.3 g NH3 animal(-1) d(-1)) or 3.2 times higher when compared on an animal unit (AU) basis (1 AU = 500 kg) because of climate and animal size differences between measurement periods. For summertime, the emission factor for the finishing pigs was 7.8 times higher than for sows on an animal basis and 25.6 times higher on an AU basis. Simple models were developed for housing emissions based on (i) all measured factors that were independent of each other and (ii) on three commonly measured management factors. The two models explained 97 and 64%, respectively, of variations in emissions. Ammonia emissions were found to be somewhat less than other studies on the same type housing due to more representative housing concentration measurements and calibration of exhaust fans; thus, emission factors for these type houses will be less than previously thought.

Life cycle assessment of Japanese pig farming using low-protein diet supplemented with amino acids

“…The emission factors used in this study were adopted because they were determined to be the most applicable to the defined conditions of the processes in the systems analyzed, such as the climate, animals, and styles of housing and waste treatment. For example, the emission factor suggested by Harper et al (2004) was used to calculate NH 3 emission from the pig barn considering the conditions of housing such as the slat floor and the daily removal of manure, rather than the storage of manure in an under-floor pit for a long period. To calculate the environmental loads from the production and combustion of fossil fuels, the consumption of electricity, the production of materials, and marine transport, the database of the LCA software JEMAI-LCA Pro (JEMAI 2005) was used, and if the data for materials were lacking in the database, inputoutput-based databases were used (NIES 2002;Ajinomoto 2007).…”

Effects of available surface on gaseous emissions from group-housed gestating sows kept on deep litter

“…On slatted floor, cited values range from 5 g to 15 g NH 3 -N/day per sow (Groot Koerkamp et al, 1998;Groenestein et al, 2003). Whatever the floor type, numerous factors can influence NH 3 -emissions, like feeding management, interior climate, season and waste treatment (Harper et al, 2004;Philippe et al, 2006 and. Furthermore, for litter systems, properties of bedding materials carbon/nitrogen ratio (C/N ratio; carbon availability, pH value and physical structure, among others) affect volatilization (Jeppsson, 2002).…”

Dinitrogen and methane gas production during the anaerobic/anoxic decomposition of animal manure

“…No N 2 O was found in the collectors via GC. In other studies no N 2 O emissions were found from anaerobic lagoons using atmospheric transport techniques and tunable diode laser spectroscopy (Harper et al 2000(Harper et al , 2004a. Samples of helium (He) injected into the collectors showed a sampling procedure error of about 1 % due to atmospheric N 2 contamination (see Harper et al 2004b).…”

“…measurements of effluent samples (collected in bottles at the surface of each lagoon), surface lagoon temperatures, and wind speeds measured at 1.5 m height (from a metereological station on site), and a lagoon NH 3 emissions model by De Visscher et al (2002). Housing NH 3 emissions were estimated from a model developed by Harper et al (2004a) for North Carolina swine farms.…”

“…Benign N 2 emission from lagoons is a pathway of N emissions is that is significant and must be considered in the total N balance of AFOs. When the National Emissions Inventory (USEPA 2004) NH 3 emissions values are combined with published (measured) N 2 emissions (Harper et al 2000(Harper et al , 2004aWeaver et al 2012), in many cases more N as NH 3 plus N 2 is emitted than is excreted by the animals, suggesting the need to reevaluate emissions' estimates.…”