Odor Control Technologies

Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 1997 | No Comments

Results on different experiments are presented: alkaline by products (fly ash and cement kiln) added to manure, pit additives, organic and inorganic floating covers and land application. Livestock and poultry productions have an impact on air quality. However the density level which is not comparable to the one in some areas of several European Countries and the resulting ammonia emissions does not represent a threat to the vegetative growth as seen in Europe. Dust removal from exhaust ventilation air will reduce odor emissions. Regulations on odorous emissions from livestock production should focus on source reduction issues.

The information presented in this proceeding doesn’t refer to any previous publication. It is difficult to analyze it as not much is given on protocol and test procedures.

Surveying odor nuisance of a plant: purpose and practical guidelines. Case studies of sewage treatment plants.

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A community odor survey can give more specific information about the nuisance coming from specific process operations in waste water plants. This tool can help define the frequency and the spatial distribution of the odor nuisance and by studying the results, links can be made to specific plant operations. Guidelines of the methodology and two case studies are presented. Such a survey has to be accepted and well announce within the community to assure a sufficient participation. The participant registered appreciation of the quality of the odor in the outdoor air (from no nuisance to severe nuisance) on an hourly basis when possible. Those responses were linked to meteorological data to know at least the wind speed and direction to determine the orientation of the odor dispersion.

This is an interesting tool to appreciate the spatial dispersion and the frequency of odor emission. Such a survey could also be linked with dispersion model to add more information and also to evaluate the appreciation of the odor nuisance by the community.

Application of Swine Manure to Clay Soils in Manitoba

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The effect of repeated manure applications on chemical and physical properties of upper horizons in clay soils were verified. Samples were take on the 0 – 120 cm of Osborne, Red River and Marquette clays in 12 locations in the Red River Valley region of Manitoba. Samples were done on soils that had received 5 to 30 manure applications they were compared to similar soils that did not received manure. Changes in the chemical properties were observed in the soils that received manure. The soils that received manure showed a potential for salts accumulation in the surface horizons of clay soils (0-15cm) as average electrical conductivity and chloride concentration were higher. Also for the same soil depth, the pH was lower and the average organic matter was higher for the soil that received manure. For all depth studied, the average nitrate- nitrogen and phosphate- phosphorus and potassium concentration measured were higher where manure was applied. No real evidence of sodification could be observed. The differences measured for higher sodium and exchangeable sodium percentage levels in the 0 – 15 cm depth on the soils that received manure were not statistically significant.

The effect of manure application on clay soils in Manitoba showed changes in the soil properties. The soils’ salinity was not changed significantly for the manure application levels of this experiment. For soils that have high salinity levels, feed rations given to hog should be tested to make sure that the sodium and chloride levels do not exceed the recommended levels. As the manure application levels exceeded the nitrogen requirements of plants on several of the fields nitrate leaching could be observed at 120 cm. Appropriate application rate would reduce nitrate leaching and also lower the salinity potential (lower electrical conductivity and chloride levels in the upper soils’ layers).

Environmental implications of livestock production

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Respiratory responses of human subjects to air quality in a swine building.

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The purpose of this study is to test the following hypotheses: (1) if air quality control strategy can be directly evaluated by measuring respiratory responses in swine building environments. Twenty naA?ve human subjects (subjects were between 18 and 35 years old and had never been exposed to an enclosed swine environment before) were exposed to two different air qualities, a treatment and a control, in a swine building. The treatment room was sprinkled with crude canola oil, which reduced the dust, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide by 93%, 30% and 27%, respectively, compared with the control. Each subject spent five hours in each room. They were scheduled to do a bicycle exercise that was intended to simulate the barn workersa

Reduction of Ammonia Volatilization by Housing and Feeding in Fattening Piggeries

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Appropriate pen design where less than 50% of the floor surface is slatted combined to a good control of the indoor conditions (particularly in the summer to prevent pen fouling) can reduce the ammonia emission and also improve animal welfare.

Effect of C Source on Bedding and Compost N Volatilization

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N losses are taken as a whole making no difference between ammonia emission and NO and N2O emissions. The composting process when not well controlled, can results in NO and N2O emissions. No information is given on the temperature of the compost during the process even if thermocouples were installed to measure it. No information is also given to the composting process under winter conditions where the degradation processes are slowed by the low temperature and the slowing down of bacteria activity.

County votes down corporate hog farms

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The Seaboard Corp. tries to complete an integrated project around a hog plant located in Guymon Okla., that could increase its slaughter capacity from 14 000 head /day to 16 000 head. This project is tied to swine production units in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas. Last spring, Seaboard Corp. acquired real estate (in Kansas and just across the border in Oklahoma) and informed the official of Seward County, Kansas of their plan for pork production units and a feed mill building project. However, Seward County controversy and the opposition toward corporate pork production it has arisen in other states that had previously supported corporate farming threaten the project. A vote was taken in Seward County and an overwhelming majority of citizen want to rescind corporate farming. The legality of this vote is questioned and the Kansas attorney general concluded that the vote is non-binding because the citizens are not specifically authorized by the law to rescind corporate farming while county commissioners can. However legal advisors of the county commission has interpreted the home-rule authority differently and consider the vote binding. The county commission may have to vote and the commissioners who supported the Seaboard Corp. are under severe pressure.
Disputes over corporate farming are happening on many other Kansas counties even if some of them had endorsed corporate farming in the past (particularly with Murphy Farms in Hodgeman County over a 10 000-sow facility). The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has environmental standards but the counties (as allowed by the law) can create more restrictive ones.
The Kansas Pork Producers Council is afraid the counties may start treating farms differently and that expansion may become difficult if county and state regulations become excessive.
The opponents are concerned with the important number of hogs (500 000) that would be put in Seward County and the impact it can have on the environment, property value and the influx of low-wage, immigrant labor it could bring. They consider that the tax revenue from those operations would not outbalance the negative impact on the county and that the existing KDHE’s policy on waste regulation is inadequate.

The disputes are severe and could have an impact on all the pork production in that state because the line between pork corporate farming and pork production is thin (today’s corporate production units size could become tomorrow farmers production size). Links between concentrated production and environmental rules are not outlined. Some dairy farmers are taking position against corporate farming.

Hogs Your Way – Self Guiding Decision Support System for Producers Evaluating Hog Production Systems

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The development of a set of criteria was done by a large and interdisciplinary group from the hog industry in order to evaluate 3 alternative hog production system. The systems evaluated were: the Swedish Deep Straw Farrowing System (Vastgotmodellen), Pasture Systems for farrowing and finishing and for the finishing and farrowing stages, the Hoop Houses using straw. Those systems were found to be economically interesting for specific size production units (beginning, small and medium sized farms) and they could lower certain environmental impacts compared to conventional production units on liquid manure systems. A guide has been develop to assist the producers that want to start swine production or change their production system. This guide integrate to the decision making process the specific vision of the producer, his vision and goals for his farm and family and the elements of the different production systems.

Such type of decision support system should be done to help farmers with the choice of “environmental friendly” production systems for integration in the actual farm or when planning new buildings. Different systems with consideration of odours, gas emissions, risk to soil and water are available. To decide which are the most appropriate and cost effective for a given farm or situation is difficult with no help. The tool that have been developed does not cover all environmental aspects, particularly for gas emissions.

Temperature effect in Concrete Manure Tanks: Finite Element Approach.

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The study realized shows that the temperature differential in the concrete walls of the manure storage has an important effect and should be considered in the structural design of the tank. Measures were taken on an instrumented manure concrete tank and a mathematical model using the finite element technique was developed to better understand the thermal phenomena. A suggested procedures is given to allow for the determination of the design internal forces that consider all thermal effects.

As more research is done on the concrete tanks, more parameters are found to have an effect on the tank structure. These effects can than be integrated in the design calculation for the structure resulting in storage facilities that are more solid and would have a longer lifetime.