Diurnal Odor, Ammonia, Hydrogen Sulfide, and Carbon Dioxide Emission Profiles of Confined Swine Grower/Finisher Rooms

Abstract

The objective of this study was to obtain diurnal variation profiles of odor and gas (ammonia [NH3], hydrogen sulfide [H2S], carbon dioxide [CO2]) concentrations and emission rate (OGCER) from confined swine grower/ finisher rooms under three typical weather conditions (warm, mild, and cold weather) in a year. Two grower/ finisher rooms, one with a fully slatted floor and the other with partially slatted floors, were measured for 2 consecutive days under each weather condition. The results revealed that the diurnal OGCER in the room with a fully slatted floor was 9.2-39.4% higher than that with a partially slatted floor; however, no significant differences in the diurnal OGCER were found between these two rooms, except for the NH3 concentrations in August, the NH3 and H2S concentrations and emissions in October, and odor concentrations and emissions in February (p > 0.05). The OGCER variations presented different diurnal patterns as affected by time of day, season, type of floor, ventilation rate, animal growth cycles, in-house manure storage, and weather conditions. Significant diurnal fluctuations in the OGCER (except for the odor concentrations and H2S emissions) were observed in August (p < 0.05); all of the gas emissions in October and the CO2 concentrations and emissions in February also showed significant diurnal variations (p < 0.05). These significant diurnal variations indicated that the OGCER during different periods of a day should be monitored when quantifying OGCER concentrations and emissions; for example, source emission data used in air dispersion modeling to decrease the great incertitude of setback determination using randomly measured data.

Seasonal Odor, Ammonia, Hydrogen Sulfide, and Carbon Dioxide Concentrations and Emissions from Swine Grower-Finisher Rooms

“…The reason could be due to low correlations between odor and NH 3 and H 2 S concentrations. 15 Overall, the general seasonal H 2 S pattern indicated that higher manure and room temperatures in the warm season considerably favored H 2 S production in the rooms. Because of the high ventilation rate and high H 2 S concentration in the warm season, the H 2 S emission rates were high in the warm season and low in the cold season.…”

“…Odor and gas emission rates were determined by multiplying the increase in odor and gas concentrations between the room ventilation outlet and inlet by the total airflow rate of the exhaust fans, expressed in OU AU Ϫ1 sec Ϫ1 for odor, or mg AU Ϫ1 sec Ϫ1 for gas (1 animal unit [AU] ϭ 500 kg of animal mass). The detailed method of the odor and gas measurements in this study was presented in Sun et al 15 It should be noted that the uncertainty of emission rate calculations is primarily associated with the uncertainty in barn ventilation rate measurement because of various factors; for example, dust accumulation on fan shutters and blades, loose fan belts, changes in building static pressure, and changes of power supply to the fans all affect the ventilation rate. Thus, the fan performance in the field might be different from the laboratory testing results.…”

“…In the literature, large variability in odor and gas concentrations and emissions from different swine production facilities during specific monitoring periods were observed. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] However, few setback models consider diurnal and seasonal variation in odor and gas emission rates. 13 This may cause large uncertainties in calculated setback distances using emission rates measured at randomly selected times.…”

Pilot-scale testing of renewable biocatalyst for swine manure treatment and mitigation of odorous VOCs, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide emissions

“…The increase in CO 2 and CH 4 flux from SBP treatment is small when put into the context of total GHG emissions from a US commercial swine finisher and swine gestation barn with a deep pit storage. The increase in CO 2 as a result of the SBP/CaO 2 treatments of 2.28, 4.57, 22.8 and 45.7 kg/m 2 equates to 0.52e0.68, 0.66e0.86, 2.01e2.62, and 2.97e3.88% of the total CO 2 emitted from a typical swine finisher with deep pit, respectively (Sun et al, 2008;Ni et al, 2008). There is much greater CO 2 contribution from pigs' respiration, combustion from natural gas-fired space heaters, and from microbial activity in manure.…”

Floor slat openings impact ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions associated with group-housed gestating sows

“…Indeed with a partly-slatted floor, the fouling of the solid floor can be important, especially in case of summer conditions and high animal density (European Commission, 2003;Aarnink et al, 2006). So, if some of the authors observed a decrease of NH 3 -emissions with the use of a partly-slatted floor compared to a fully-slatted floor with fattening pigs (Groot Koerkamp et al, 1998;Sun et al, 2008;Ye et al, 2009), some others observed similar or increased NH 3 -emissions (Guingand and Granier, 2001;Guingand and Courboulay, 2007;Guingand et al, 2010). In addition in the current study, the clogging of the holes with animal waste in the R2.5 room could impair the drainage properties of the solid part of the floor with negative impact on NH 3 -emissions.…”