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Industry Partners
Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan
Prairie Swine Centre is grateful for the assistance of the George Morris Centre in developing the economics portion of Pork Insight.
Financial support for the Enterprise Model Project and Pork Insight has been provided by:
Research Scientist – Engineering
P.O. Box 21057,
2105 8th Street East,
Saskatoon, CANADA S7H 5N9
Phone (306) 667-7444
Fax (306) 955-2510
E-mail: click here
Dr. Predicala manages the Engineering Research Program at PSCI with the following goals: to address environmental sustainability issues associated with swine production and to optimize the physical environment in swine production facilities to enhance performance and reduce production cost. For the past 7 years, Dr. Predicala has secured more than C$1.7 million in extramural research funding for individual and collaborative projects mainly aimed to ensure health and safety of barn workers and pigs, control environmental emissions, and comply with applicable environmental and occupational regulations. During this period, he has supervised and coordinated the work of a team of Post-doctoral Fellows (2), Research Assistants (4), Research Technicians (3), Graduate Students (3 Ph.D. students, 4 M.Sc. students), and Undergraduate Student Assistants (4) in the implementation of project workplans. Dr. Predicala also holds concurrent appointment as Adjunct Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan. He is also actively engaged with professional societies, currently serving as an officer of the Canadian Society for Bioengineering, as member of various committees of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, and as Associate Editor and reviewer for professional journals.
Education
- Ph.D., Kansas State University, 2003
- M.Eng., Asian Institute of Technology, 1995
- B.Sc., University of the Philippines Los Baños, 1990
Professional Affiliations
- President-elect (2012) – Canadian Society for Bioengineering (CSBE)
- Member – American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE)
- Associate Editor – ASABE Journals
Current Research Program
- Application of air filtration technologies for animal transport and biocontainment
- Benchmarking and standardization of swine production systems
- Benchmarking water use and developing strategies for water conservation in swine barns
- Characterization and improvement of occupational environment in swine barns
- Development of an innovative air cleaning system for swine buildings
- Improving energy efficiency in swine barns to reduce cost of productionNovel application of nanoparticles to control greenhouse gas emissions and proliferation of pathogens in livestock operations
Graduate Students
- Leila Dominguez, Ph.D. program
- Lyman Moreno, Ph.D. program (co-supervised with Dr. M. Nemati)
- Myra Martel, Ph.D. program (co-supervised with Dr. S. Lemay)
- Jeff Elder, M.Sc. program (co-supervised with Dr. D. Korber)
Selected Publications
- Predicala, B., A. Alvarado and D. Asis. 2012. Use of zinc oxide nanoparticles to control hydrogen sulphide, ammonia and odour emissions from pig barns. Paper No. ILES12-1507. Presented at the 9th International Livestock Environment Symposium. American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. Valencia, Spain. July 8-12, 2012.
- Moreno, L., M. Nemati and B. Predicala. 2012. Treatment of model organic compounds in microbial fuel cell type bioreactors. Paper No. 253. Presented at the 2nd International Conference on Environmental Pollution and Remediation. Montreal, Quebec, Canada. August 28-30, 2012.
- Martel, M., S.P. Lemay, B. Predicala, M. Girard, R. Hogue, M. Belzile, J. Feddes and S. Godbout. 2012. Steady-state model for ammonia removal from swine facility air with a cross-flow biotrickling filter: model development and sensitivity analysis. Paper No. CSBE12-127. Presented at 2012 NABEC-CSBE/SCGAB Joint Meeting and Technical Conference. Canadian Society for Bioengineering. Orillia, Ontario. July 15-18, 2012.
- Moreno, L., M. Nemati and B. Predicala. 2011. Application of microbial fuel cells in treatment of waters contaminated by short chain fatty acids. Paper presented at the Western Canada Water Conference and Exhibit. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. September 20-23, 2011.
- Moreno, L., B. Predicala, M. Nemati. 2010. Laboratory, semi-pilot and room scale study of nitrite and molybdate mediated control of H2S emission from swine manure. Bioresource Technology 101: 2141–2151.
- Senthilselvan, A., JA Dosman, L Chénard, LH Burch, BZ Predicala, R Sorowski, D Schneberger, T Hurst, S Kirychuk, V Gerdts, Y Cormier, DC Rennie, DA Schwartz. 2009. Toll-like receptor 4 variants reduce airway response in human subjects at high endotoxin levels in a swine facility. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 123(5):1034-40.
- Sun, G., H. Guo, J. Peterson, B. Predicala, C. Laguë. 2008. Diurnal odor, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide emission profiles of confined swine grower/finisher rooms. Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association. 58(11):1434-1448.
- Predicala, B.Z., E.L. Cortus, S.P. Lemay and C. Laguë. 2007. Effectiveness of a manure scraper for reducing concentrations of hydrogen sulphide in a swine grower-finisher room. Transactions of the ASABE. 50(3): 999-1006.
- Xing, Y., H. Guo, J. Feddes, Z. Yu, S. Shewchuck and B. Predicala. 2007. Sensitivities of four air dispersion models to climatic parameters for swine odor dispersion. Transactions of the ASABE. 50(3): 1007-1017.