Air Emissions from Broiler Houses in California

Ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide and particulate matter emissions from California high-rise layer houses

1. A survey of the concentration and emission rates of aerial ammonia, nitrous oxide, methane, carbon dioxide, dust and endotoxin was undertaken in 4 examples each of typical UK broiler, cage and perchery houses over 24 h during winter and summer. 2. Overall the air quality within the poultry houses was unsatisfactory as judged by the dual criteria of farmer health and bird performance. 3. Mean concentrations of ammonia ranged from 12.3 to 24.2 ppm while concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide were close to ambient levels. Mass concentrations of aerial dust ranged from 2 to 10 rag/m3 and 0.3 to 1.2 mg/m3 for inspirable and respirable fractions respectively, while endotoxin concentration was typically about 0.1 ^g/m3 (inspirable fraction). 4. Emission rates of gaseous ammonia were rapid (9.2 g (NH3/h per 500 kg live body weight) and uniform across the three types of building, while emissions of methane and nitrous oxide were slow. Rates of dust emission ranged from 0.86 to 8.24 g/h per 500 kg live body weight in the inspirable size fraction.

The effects of slatted floors and manure scraper systems on the concentrations and emission rates of ammonia, methane and carbon dioxide in goat buildings

Total suspended particulate (TSP) concentrations, ammonia (NH3) concentrations, and ventilation rates weremeasured in four commercial, tunnelventilated broiler houses in June through December of 2000 in Brazos County, Texas.TSP and NH3 concentrations ranged from 7,387 to 11,387 .g m3 and 2.02 to 45 ppm, respectively. Ammonia concentrationexhibited a correlation with the age of the birds. Mass median diameters (MMD) of the TSP samples were between 24.0 and26.7 .m aerodynamic equivalent diameter. MMD increased with bird age. The mass fraction of PM10 in the TSP samples wasbetween 2.72% and 8.40% with a mean of 5.94%. Ventilation rates were measured between 0.58 and 89 m3 s1. Measuredconcentrations of PM10 and ammonia were multiplied by the measured ventilation rates to calculate emission rates for PM10and ammonia. Ammonia emission rates varied from 38 to 2105 g hr1. TSP emission rates and PM10 emission rates rangedfrom 7.0 to 1673 g hr1 and 0.58 to 99 g hr1, respectively. Emission rates for ammonia and particulate matter increased withthe age of the birds. Most of the PM in the commercial broiler houses was large enough to be captured by the human or poultryrespiratory system prior to being inhaled into the lungs.

This paper reports the emission rates of gases and particulate matter (PM) from two California broiler buildings that were monitored from September 2007 to October 2009 in the National Air Emission Monitoring Study. Each of the two identical buildings housed 21,000 broilers with a 45-day growth cycle and market weight of 2.7 kg. The litter was completely cleaned out every three growth cycles. The building environment was controlled by 11 ventilation fans, 2 evaporative cooling cells, and 17 heaters. During two-years of continuous emission measurement, gas and particulate matter concentrations and ventilation rate were continuously measured. The results show that the mean emission rates of ammonia and carbon dioxide were 0.49 and 76.1 g/hd-d, and emission rates of hydrogen sulfide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ethanol were 2.89, 46.5, 4.27 and 16.3 mg/hd-d, respectively. The mean emission rates of PM2.5, PM10 and total suspended particulate were 5.35, 44.0 and 120 mg/hd-d, respectively. The emission rates increased with broiler growth.

The concentrations and emission rates of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide were measured from a nursery, a farrowing and a breeding/gestation rooms in summer. The gases were sampled every three hours in 48 hours. Dust concentration (08:00-16:00) and dust deposition (48-h) were also measured. The exhaust gas concentrations had an inverse relationship with ambient temperature and ventilation rate and their diurnal patterns were similar for all three rooms. The average gas concentrations were 6.6 ppm, 460 ppb, 1353 ppm;4.7 ppm, 541 ppb, 1011 ppm; 4.9 ppm, 274 ppb, 1012 ppm for NH3, H2S and CO2, in nursery, farrowing, and breeding rooms, respectively. The diurnal variations of gas emission rate were not significant in the nursery and farrowing rooms with the NH3 emission rate 0.24 0.04, 0.140.03 mg/s/m2, H2S 25.413.52, 24.26 4.21 g/s/m2, and CO2 7.40 01.11, 2.61 1.10 mg/s/m2 for nursery room and farrowing room, respectively. The breeding/gestation room presented a large diurnal variation and had several peaks within two days. The maximum emission rate was 4.59 mg/s/m2, 239.63g/s/m2, and 71.43 mg/s/m2 for NH3, H2S and CO2, respectively. The dust concentrations were 1.06, 0.19, 0.75 mg/m3, in nursery, farrowing, and breeding rooms, respectively. The dust deposition rates were 35.72, 6.37, and 14.86 mg h-1m-2 in nursery, farrowing, and breeding rooms, respectively. None of the measured air quality parameters exceeded the thresholds of the Occupational Health Regulations. The farrowing room had better air quality than the nursery and gestation rooms.

Ammonia concentrations and emission rates at a commercial poultry manure composting facility

HighlightsAnnual average PM10 (daily) and PM2.5 (hourly) concentrations of 509 ±203 and 43.3 ±36.1 µg m-3, respectively.Significant seasonal and diurnal variations in PM concentrations; higher in colder seasons and during daytime.Annual average PM10 (daily) and PM2.5 (hourly) emission rates of 17.9 ±9.6 and 1.41 ±1.53 mg d-1 hen-1, respectively.Significant diurnal variations in PM emission rates but inconsistent seasonal variations; higher during daytime.Abstract. Particulate matter (PM) concentration and emission rate information is needed to assess air quality concerns and environmental impacts related to egg production. Many egg layer buildings were retrofitted from high-rise to manure-belt houses over the past few decades. However, no studies have reported these PM data for the retrofitted layer houses. In this study, concentrations and emission rates of PM10 and PM2.5 were continuously monitored for 12 months at two commercial retrofitted manure-belt layer houses in the Midwestern U.S. The average daily mean PM10 and average hourly mean PM2.5 concentrations in the houses were 509 ±203 µg m-3 and 43.3 ±36.1 µg m-3, respectively. Significant seasonal and diurnal variations in PM concentrations were observed, with higher concentrations in colder seasons and during daytime. The average daily mean PM10 and average hourly mean PM2.5 emission rates from the two houses were 17.9 ±9.6 mg d-1 hen-1 and 1.41 ±1.53 mg d-1 hen-1, respectively. There were no consistent patterns in seasonal variations. Significant diurnal variations were also observed for PM emission rates, with higher PM emission rates observed during daytime. The PM concentrations were significantly correlated with ambient temperature, ventilation rate, bird age, egg production, daily mortality, and feed conversion ratio, while PM emission rates were significantly correlated with ambient temperature, bird age, bird mass, egg mass, and ventilation rate. Keywords: Diurnal variation, Dust, Egg production, PM, Poultry, Seasonal variation.

The purpose of this study is to estimate the concentrations and emission rates of ammonia and hydrogen sulphide released from poultry buildings situated in South Korea by field investigation. Mean concentrations of ammonia and hydrogen sulphide emitted from poultry buildings were 18.8 (±4.90) ppm and 945 (±519) ppb for caged layer house, 15.2 (±3.21) ppm and 603 (±274) ppb for broiler house, and 6.45 (±1.85) ppm and 247 (±184) ppb for layer house with manure belt, respectively. Seasonal variations in concentrations of ammonia and hydrogen sulphide in poultry building were observed highest in winter, lowest in summer (p < 0.01). Based on animal unit (AU), mean emission rates of ammonia and hydrogen sulphide were 4493 (±2095) mg AU−1 h−1 and 4493 (±2095) mg AU−1 h−1, respectively. Those of ammonia and hydrogen sulphide in terms of poultry building area were 278 (±130) mg m−2 h−1 and 12.3 (±9.20) mg m−2 h−1, respectively. Exposure level and emission rate of ammonia and hydrogen sulphide were highest in caged layer house, followed by broiler house and layer house with manure belt (p < 0.05). This finding implicates that the caged layer house among types of poultry building in South Korea should be managed optimally to lessen generation of ammonia and hydrogen sulphide.

Effect of magnesium sulphate addition to broiler litter on the ammonia, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and methane emissions from housing

Continuous measurement of aerial emissions from animal feeding operations over prolonged time is labor and resource intensive. Hence, knowledge of strategic, discrete measurements that lead to comparable emission estimation is highly desirable. This paper delineates the effects of sampling schemes on estimation of daily, flock and annual ammonia (NH3) and particulate matter (PM) emission rate (ER) of a turkey grow-out house. The sampling schemes examined include sampling integration time (SIT) duration of continuous measurement over which the means of the ER components are taken, sampling interval (SI) time interval between two adjacent instantaneous ER measurements, and measurement frequency (MF) throughout the total monitoring period how often the periodic measurements take place. Evaluation of the SIT and SI effects involved 70 discrete days of continuous measurement covering cold to warm climates; whereas the effect of MF involved two consecutive flocks of continuous measurements (May 2 December 17, 2007 with 7-day downtime). The full dataset or reference was based on NH3 or PM ER values collected at 0.5 to 4 min throughout the discrete or consecutive measurement days. The subsets of ER were established at different SIT or SI throughout the discrete days and at different MF throughout the consecutive flocks. The results show that estimation of daily NH3 and PM10 emissions is affected by SIT and SI. Specifically, at SIT of 0.5 to 2 hr, the resultant daily emissions deviated from the reference values by -0.5% to 2.7% for NH3 and by -6.9% to 6.6% for PM10. At SI of 0.5 to 2 hr, the resultant daily emissions deviated from the reference values by -9.9% to 10.2% for NH3 and by -34.7% to 28.8% for PM10. Ammonia or PM10 emissions deviation of the flock, estimated from 1-d, 2-d or 3-d continuous measurement per week throughout the grow-out period, had <16%, <18%, or <13%, respectively, deviations of the reference value. In comparison, if the periodic measurements were taken for 1 d, 2 d or 3 d every 4 weeks, the deviation of the resultant emissions from the reference values would be in the range of -35.5% to 64.5%.

Ammonia emissions from two mechanically ventilated UK livestock buildings

Gas production in broiler houses and their emissions are closely related to the microclimate established inside the house according to air temperature, humidity, and velocity. Therefore, the internal house environment is influenced by building typology and ventilation system. The objective of the present study was to evaluate ammonia emission rates in broiler houses equipped with different ventilation systems (negative or positive pressure) and litter conditions (new or built-up). The environment of six commercial broiler houses was evaluated internal and external NH 3 concentrations. Ventilation rates were recorded to estimate ammonia emission rates. The efficiency of circulation and exhaust fans was assessed, and higher ventilation rates were determined in negative-pressure houses due to the higher flow of the fans. Houses with new litter increased ammonia emission rates along the rearing period, indicating the relationship between gas emissions, bird age and ventilation rates, and presented a typical curve of NH 3 emission increase. Negative-pressure houses with built-up litter presented higher emission rates during the first rearing week due to the high NH 3 concentration during the brooding period, when the ventilation rates required to maintain chick thermal comfort are low. Although the results of the present study indicate an advantage of the positive-pressure systems as to gas emissions, further research is needed reduce gas emissions in broiler houses with negative-pressure systems.

Characterization of gaseous pollutant and particulate matter emission rates from a commercial broiler operation part II: Correlated emission rates

Comparison of real-world vehicle fuel use and tailpipe emissions for gasoline-ethanol fuel blends