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

Abstract

Seasonal odor and gas (ammonia [NH 3 ], hydrogen sulfide [H 2 S], and carbon dioxide [CO 2 ]) concentrations and emission rates (OGCERs) from swine facilities are vital for providing accurate source emissions and reducing the uncertainty of setback distances on the basis of emission data. In this study, a repeated measurement experimental method and a split-block statistical model were used to obtain seasonal OGCER profiles from two types of swine grower-finisher rooms in Saskatchewan, Canada, over a 12-month period. The results indicate that the OGCERs were significantly affected by the sampling month and ambient temperature (P Ͻ 0.05), which indicates that monthly OGCERs should be measured and used as representative monthly or seasonal values in air dispersion models to reduce uncertainties in setback calculations. It was also found that the seasonal OGCERs from the rooms with fully slatted floors were 6.3-40.6% higher than those with partially slatted floors. The seasonal OGCERs (except for the NH 3 concentrations in October, November, and January; the CO 2 concentrations in August; and the CO 2 emission rates in December) between these two rooms for each measuring month did not differ significantly (P Ͼ 0.05). The measured gas concentrations were generally below the permissible exposure limits (PELs) established by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) throughout the year except for the NH 3 concentrations in cold weather (December, January, and February). INTRODUCTIONAmmonia (NH 3 ), hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S), carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), and odorous gaseous compounds produced in livestock facilities and manure storage units are a great concern in Canada because of their environmental and health effects on animals, workers, and nearby residents, as well as social and economic impacts on animal industry and local communities. 1,2 Over the last decade, some abatement methods and strategies such as biofiltration, diet manipulation, manure storage covers, vegetative environmental buffers, wet scrubbers, biocurtains, and ultraviolet (UV) light treatment have been developed and utilized to alleviate odor and gas problems. However, few of these technologies are adopted by swine producers because of relatively low efficacy and high implementation costs. 3 Recently, a common approach widely practiced is to maintain adequate setback distances between the livestock operation and the neighboring residences. To determine science-based setback distance, air dispersion models have been used to estimate downwind odor and gas concentrations from animal feeding operations. 4 -6 A good prediction of downwind odor and gas concentrations using air dispersion models relies largely on source emission rate information, which is highly variable with diurnal and seasonal variations, building characteristics, ventilation rates, animal size and density, weather conditions, and manure handling systems, to name a few. In the literature, large variability in odor and gas concentrations and emissions from different s...

Annual Variations of Odor Concentrations and Emissions from Swine Gestation, Farrowing, and Nursery Buildings

“…The peak emission rate occurred on April 7 as a combined result of high ventilation rate and high odor concentration considering the emission rate is the product of odor concentration and ventilation rate, which made it higher than the winter emission rates (e.g., in December when odor concentration was the highest but ventilation rate was the lowest) and the summer emission rates (e.g., in August when ventilation rate was the highest but odor concentration was the lowest). Studies by Sun et al 13 and Guo et al 9 also had similar observations. The reason that the peaks occurred in spring rather than autumn might be that in spring the increasing manure temperature caused higher manure gas production but the ventilation rate was still low during most of the day due to relatively low ambient temperature, thus once the ventilation rate picked up it might be combined with high manure gas production in barn and resulted in high odor emission rate.…”

“…For the swine grower-to-finisher buildings, a previous study conducted by Sun et al 12,13 have measured diurnal and seasonal odor emissions from two types of these buildings; thus, the results from all four types of rooms will also be compared in this study.…”

Odor and Odorous Chemical Emissions from Animal Buildings: Part 3. Chemical Emissions

“…The analysis was composed of two parts: the treatment part and the time part. The model developed by Sun et al (2010) was used:…”

Development and evaluation of methods for the measurement of airborne emissions form animal houses

“…Attending to the temporal variations, three main factors cause differences in emissions: daily variations, seasonal variations and variations due to different stages of animals housed in the barn (Sun et al, 2010). The relative importance of each factor is closely related to the aim of the measurement, as seen in section 1.2.3.…”

“…However, the effect of different climatic conditions on airborne emissions is not that clear (Sun et al, 2010). Attempts to reduce the number of sampling days when determining ammonia emissions from livestock houses have been successfully developed (Vranken et al, 2004).…”