Ammonia emissions from two mechanically ventilated UK livestock buildings

• Published in: Atmospheric environment (1994) Vol. 33; no. 2; pp. 217 - 227
• Main Authors: Demmers, T.G.M., Burgess, L.R., Short, J.L., Phillips, V.R., Clark, J.A., Wathes, C.M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 1999; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Agricultural facility (building and storage); Ammonia emission; Animal productions; Applied sciences; Atmospheric pollution; Biological and medical sciences; Buildings; Buildings. Public works; Dispersed sources and other; Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Indoor pollution and occupational exposure; Livestock housing; Pigs; Pollution; Pollution sources. Measurement results; Poultry; Terrestrial animal productions; Tracer gas; Types of buildings; Ventilation; Vertebrates; United Kingdom; Europe; United Kingdom of Great Britain; Pigs; Ventilation; Ammonia emission; Tracer gas; Poultry; Livestock housing; Tracer technique; Correlation; Emission content; Livestock farm; Pollutant emission; Pig barn; Pig; Ammonia; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Indoor pollution; Air pollution; Artiodactyla; Mechanical ventilation; Ungulata
• ISSN: 1352-2310; 1873-2844
• DOI: 10.1016/S1352-2310(98)00150-2

Ammonia emission rates from livestock buildings are required to construct an accurate emission inventory for the UK. Ventilation and ammonia emission rates from a fattening pig unit and a broiler house, both mechanically ventilated, were estimated using fan wheel anemometers and thermal converters with a chemiluminescence NO x -analyser to measure the ventilation rate and the ammonia concentration, respectively. The estimated ammonia emission factors were 46.9 and 16.6 kg lu -1 a -1 for the fattening pig unit and the broiler house, respectively. Both emission factors were within the range reported in the literature. A tracer gas (CO) method, based on a constant tracer release rate, was validated for measuring ventilation rates from naturally ventilated livestock buildings. Air inlets and outlets were identified using the air temperature or tracer concentration in the opening. Tracer concentration was found to be a more suitable criterion than temperature. In both houses, a significant correlation between the estimated ventilation rate using the tracer method and the measured ventilation rate using fan wheel anemometers was found. The ventilation rate was underestimated by 12 and 6% for the piggery and broiler house, respectively. The instantaneous ammonia emission derived from the tracer gas method was lower than the ammonia emission derived from the fan wheel anemometer method by 14 and 16% for the piggery and broiler house, respectively. The ventilation and ammonia emission estimates using the tracer method were within acceptable range from the ventilation and emission rates measured using measuring fans, but because of its accuracy and simplicity the fan wheel anemometer method is preferred for long-term measurements of ventilation rate in mechanically ventilated buildings.