Characterization of Volatile Organic Compounds and Odorants Associated with Swine Barn Particulate Matter Using Solid-Phase Microextraction and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry-Olfactometry

Abstract

Lingshuang Cai, postdoctoral research associate of ABE; Jacek A. Koziel*, assistant professor of ABE; Yin-Cheung Lo, M.S. of ABE; Steven J. Hoff, professor of ABE Summary and Implications Swine operations can affect air quality by emissions of odor, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other gases, and particulate matter (PM). Particulate matter has been proposed to be an important pathway for carrying odor. In this research, continuous PM sampling was conducted simultaneously with three collocated TEOM (tapered element oscicllating microbalance) analyzers inside a 1000head swine finish barn located in central Iowa. Each TEOM was fitted with total suspended particulate (TSP), PM-10, PM-2.5 and PM-1 preseparators. Used filters were stored in 40 mL vials and transported to the laboratory. Carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) 85 μm solid phase microextraction (SPME) fibers were used to extract VOCs. Simultaneous chemical and olfactometry analyses of VOCs and odor associated with swine PM were completed using a gas chromatography-mass spectrometer-olfactometry (GC-MS-O) system. Fifty VOCs categorized into nine chemical function groups were identified and confirmed with standards. Five of them are classified as hazardous air pollutants. VOCs were characterized with a wide range of molecular weight, boiling points, vapor pressures, water solubilities, odor detection thresholds, and atmospheric reactivities. All characteristic swine VOCs and odorants were present in PM and their abundance was proportional to PM size. However, the majority of VOCs and characteristic swine odorants were preferentially bound to smaller-size PM. The findings indicate that a significant fraction of swine odor can be carried by PM.

Particulate Matter Emitted from Poultry and Pig Houses: Source Identification and Quantification

“…The control of particles larger than 2.5 mm in diameter, however, is also relevant, because these particles can also cause adverse health effects through deposition in the upper respiratory airways. Furthermore, particles larger than 2 mm in diameter found in animal houses have been shown to contain high amounts of odorants (Cai et al, 2006) and micro-organisms (Lee et al, 2006). Consequently, both PM number and mass concentrations should be measured to tackle PM pollution related issues within animal houses, to develop reduction techniques, and to assess their effects.…”

Chemical characterization of volatile organic compounds on animal farms

“…The volatilized organic analytes are extracted and concentrated in the coating and then transferred to the GC/MS (Zhang and Pawliszyn, 1993;Llompart et al, 1999;Ezquerro et al, 2004). Cai et al (2006) firstly characterized VOCs and odorants associated with pig barn particulate matter using SPME and GC/MS.…”

Comparison on Usefulness of Sampling Methods of Indoles in Airs from Swine Facility by Tenax-TA and SPME

“…On the contrary, the sensitivity of skatole was indicated to be highest. Even though CAR/PDMS fiber was seen to be most effective for all target compounds (Cai et al, 2006), the standard deviation of concentrations obtained with CAR/PDMS was unacceptably high. The reason of high deviation of CAR/PDMS was the tailing phenomenon of the indole peak observed in the total ion chromatogram.…”