Characterizing Ammonia Emissions from Swine Farms in Eastern North Carolina: Part 2-Potential Environmentally Superior Technologies for Waste Treatment

• Published in: Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association (1995) 2008-09, Vol.58 (9), p.1145-1157
• Main Authors: Aneja, Viney P., Arya, S. Pal, Rumsey, Ian C., Kim, D.-S., Arkinson, H.L., Semunegus, H., Bajwa, K., Dickey, D.A., Stefanski, L.A., Todd, L., Mottus, K., Robarge, W.P., Williams, C.M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agreements; Agriculture; Agriculture, rearing and food industries wastes; Air Pollutants, Occupational - analysis; Ammonia; Ammonia - analysis; Animals; Applied sciences; Atmospheric aerosols; Atmospheric chemistry; Atmospheric pollution; Attorneys general; Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; Colleges & universities; Environmental aspects; Environmental protection; Exact sciences and technology; Fourier transforms; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General treatment and storage processes; Livestock farms; Methods; Methods. Procedures. Technologies; North Carolina; Others; Performance standards; Pollution; Refuse and refuse disposal; Seasons; Swine - physiology; Various methods and equipments; Waste Disposal, Fluid - methods; Waste management; Wastes
• ISSN: 1096-2247; 2162-2906
• DOI: 10.3155/1047-3289.58.9.1145

The need for developing environmentally superior and sustainable solutions for managing the animal waste at commercial swine farms in eastern North Carolina has been recognized in recent years. Program OPEN (Odor, Pathogens, and Emissions of Nitrogen), funded by the North Carolina State University Animal and Poultry Waste Management Center (APWMC), was initiated and charged with the evaluation of potential environmentally superior technologies (ESTs) that have been developed and implemented at selected swine farms or facilities. The OPEN program has demonstrated the effectiveness of a new paradigm for policy-relevant environmental research related to North Carolina's animal waste management programs. This new paradigm is based on a commitment to improve scientific understanding associated with a wide array of environmental issues (i.e., issues related to the movement of N from animal waste into air, water, and soil media; the transmission of odor and odorants; disease-transmitting vectors; and airborne pathogens). The primary focus of this paper is on emissions of ammonia (NH 3 ) from some potential ESTs that were being evaluated at full-scale swine facilities. During 2-week-long periods in two different seasons (warm and cold), NH 3 fluxes from water-holding structures and NH 3 emissions from animal houses or barns were measured at six potential EST sites: (1) Barham farm-in-ground ambient temperature anaerobic digester/energy recovery/greenhouse vegetable production system; (2) BOC #93 farm-upflow biofiltration system-EKOKAN ; (3) Carrolls farm-aerobic blanket system-ISSUES-ABS; (4) Corbett #1 farm-solids separation/gasification for energy and ash recovery centralized system-BEST; (5) Corbett #2 farm-solid separation/reciprocating water technology-ReCip; and (6) Vestal farm-Recycling of Nutrient, Energy and Water System-ISSUES-RENEW. The ESTs were compared with similar measurements made at two conventional lagoon and spray technology (LST) farms (Moore farm and Stokes farm). A flow-through dynamic chamber system and two sets of open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP-FTIR) spectrometers measured NH 3 fluxes continuously from water-holding structures and emissions from housing units at the EST and conventional LST sites. A statisticalobservational model for lagoon NH 3 flux was developed using a multiple linear regression analysis of 15-min averaged NH 3 flux data against the relevant environmental parameters measured at the two conventional farms during