Evaluating the Toast R Aerobic System for Odor Control

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

In this experiment it would have been interesting to have information about the ammonia emissions and that information is not given. The comparison are made between to barn only and unfortunately no information is given on the cost of such system.

Traitement de melanges gazeux odorants (NH3 et H2S) par la biofiltration sur boues granulees. (NH3 and H2S odours treatment by granular sludge biofilter)

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A laboratory-scale biofilter filled with granular sludge(digested and dried) has been used to remove hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and also ammonia (NH3). The biofilter has been effective in removing 96% of the H2S for inlet concentration of less than 230 mg H2S/m3 with no acclimation period and immediate reduction. For the NH3, for concentration of less than 115 mg/m3, a reduction of 72% was measured but an acclimation period of about 6 to 7 weeks was necessary after the nitrifying bacteria seeding to obtain this level of reduction. Changes of the inlet gas concentration affected more the nitrifying bacteria than the sulfur bacteria as their counts showed.

The tests were done to verify the reduction of the concentration of only 2 gases and no link has been done to the verify the effect of these reductions to the final odor of the gas treated. No comment on the a large scale biofilter feasibility is done probably because of the performances of the nitrifying bacteria and the possible need of more experimentation to better understand their behavior.

Livestock dilemma: Does success have to smell?

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The expansion in Alberta is becoming more difficult in some areas because of the high livestock concentration they present and the Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) syndrome developing. The communities and certain individuals consider the disadvantages ( mostly odours, and also bacterial contamination of water) of this expansion more important than the economical benefits the governments and the developers promote. The health and government officials conceded that expansion happened too rapidly and the education efforts on manure management was not sufficient and rapid enough to prepare well the farmers to the environmental consequences of such expansion. The County of Mountainview agriculture planning group (about 25 Central Alberta farmers) succeeded in stopping the PIC 4000 sow operation from building in their municipality. This group is presently working with the county to improve bylaws controlling these developments. They want expansion but not at any cost. Alberta’s code of practice for animal manure handling is the document municipalities rely on. However the group critics this code capacity in dealing with huge livestock operations. In Alberta and British Columbia, building and environmental regulations are focus on local approval as in Saskatchewan and Manitoba the control is provincial.
The President of Alberta Pig Co., Gary Shaw, advises strongly the developers to do their homework in the planning of intensive livestock units: to build far away from neighbors, to be well prepared doing more testing, having engineers’ reports, to plan for environmentally sustainable agriculture, to present the project to the municipalities and the communities. He says that all that is onerous but it is the new reality. The same planning advice are also given by Marvin Salomons of Alberta Agriculture.
Bernie Kotelko, president of the Alberta Cattle Feeders Ass. mentioned that the Alberta governement and the farm community is presently working on a strategic plan for intensive livestock expension. Fences disputes can even be a stopper for a developper’s project as the issues are not always rational.

The situation is becoming very complicated with all the NIMBY phenomenum and the fact the the reglementation is done at local levels. Education is very important in order to give all the possible tools to the farmers so they become more environmentally aware of their practices and can make changes and adopt new techniques. As for the opponent, efforts should be make to show them more situations where intensive livestock production has been succesfull and environmentally correct.

The Role of the Sense of Smell in Inter-individual Relationships in Livestock

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The sense of smell plays an essential role is communication in mammals. Individual recognition call be achieved an the sale basis of olfactory signals. The setting of the different stages in sexual behaviour involves smells coming from the male as well as the female, Sexual odours also interfere in the regulation of physiological processes. The different phases in the relationship between mother and young involves a critical Pole for olfactory communication. In every case studied the sense of smell acts by interacting with the other senses, in a way that is cumulative and often redundant.

Natural resin association such as incense and propolis in zootechnology

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Disposal of Dead Piglets Using Homogenization

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Experiment were conducted to study a method of dead piglets disposal by homogenization of the carcasses that could be than disposed in the liquid manure system of the production unit. Three experiments were realized. In Exp. 1, ground piglet carcass homogenized was added to manure to increase its original dry matter (DM) content of 1, 2 or 4%, control was kept for comparison. After 90 days, the dry matter content of the manure was verified and no statistically significant differences in DM were fund among the 3 manure that had or did not have received ground piglets carcasses. In Exp. 2, tanks were filled with liquids manure and ground piglet carcasses were added to the DM of the manure by 2%. Pseudorabies virus or Salmonella antum (S. antum) was added to the manure; pseudorabies virus was detected at 6 hours but not at 12 hours after the inoculation. 21 days after the incubation, S. antum could not be detected anymore in any of the tanks. In Exp. 3, a piglet pathogen mixture (S. antum and T1 coliphage) was added to liquid manure. The manure treated was then applied to crop land. Tested were done to observed the presence of the coliphage and S. anatum which could not be detected by day 20 and 56 respectively after the manure had been applied. The addition of ground piglet carcasses had little effect on the D.M. content of the manure and did not present problems with DM accumulation in the storage structure. Considering the lifetime of the pathogen in the soil, this method did not promote the distribution of swine pathogens in the environment.
More work is needed to identify the stored manure conditions that lead to pathogen control. This type of disposal could not be interesting for larger pig carcasses as the loading of the manure system would be increased. Further experiments are needed to evaluate the behavior of other common pathogens not studied here. The experimental method presented here is not an approved carcass disposal system in Minnesota and written permission were required from the Minnesota Board of Animal Health.

Determination of Gaseous Emission ates from Livestock Buildings and Manure Spreading by FTIR Open-path Spectroscopy and Inverse Dispersion Modelling

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The experimental approach selected seems to be adequate for the determination of emission sources from manure spreading or livestock buildings by field measurements. Enough information has been obtained to develop a model fitting relatively well the reality for the evaluation by calculus of dispersion for most relevant gases for environment and climate.

Liquid Compost Reator with Ammonia Emission Control

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Experiment could be done with pig manure as they were done with cattle manure. The treatment system is interesting as the ammonia emitted from the aeration is treated by a biofilter. The storage system used for the experiment is also interesting as the manure are stored in anaerobic conditions (those conditions are however uncontrolled). The gas emissions from the storage are also treated with another biofilter. No investment and operation costs are given for such installation. Such system needs maintenance and follow up to make sure that it operates correctly for the aeration part and also for the biofiltration.

Quantification of the Ammonia Balance in Fattening Pig Units with Totally Slatted Floors

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The ammonia that is found in the air of the swine buildings comes from the microbial decomposition of the urea that is present in the slurry. Considering that 70% of the protein that is in the feed intake is excreted in the urine and the feces, the link between the protein content of the feed intake and the ammonia evaporation source strength is of prime importance. Experiments were realized under nearly commercial conditions on two groups of pigs and for the 5.3 kg per pig total Kjeldahl-Nitrogen (evaluated using Kjeldahl methodology) that was fed to the pigs during the entire fattening period, 3,7 kg per pig Kjeldahl-Nitrogen was excreted in the slurry, which correspond to 68% of N excreted. Average ammonia emissions were measured and the results showed that for the entire fattening period, the emission was approximately 0.73 kg per pig for the section fully slatted and the emission was 10% lower for partially slatted floor. The nitrogen balance done on the fully slatted section showed that the manure removed from the building contained approximately 3.0 kg Kjeldahl-N per pig. The factors influencing most the ammonia emission was found to be the pH value and the temperature of the slurry, the pig live weight and finally the ventilation flow rate.

The nitrogen flow in the production cycle of the pig production is well presented. The results agree with other experiments realized with other research teams. However no statistical analysis is presented to help analyze the results.

Process for Nutrient Reduction and Disinfection of Manure

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This pilot plant show interesting results about nutrients separation in the solids part of the manure. The raw manure concentration has to be increased in order to obtain a permanent disinfection and a good efficiency of the nitrogen separation. In areas where manure is produce in excess to the soil and crop fertilizing needs this process is very interesting. However the economics around the whole process are not presented, but the costs are probably high as many operations are performed (mechanical separation, aerobic treatment, scrubbing, centrifugation, hauling to and from the plant).