S-1000 Regional Project
Animal Manure and Waste Utilization, Treatment and Nuisance Avoidance for a Sustainable Agriculture
2003 Station Reports

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Reporting Scientists:
Ted Funk, Extension Specialist, Agricultural Engineering;
Yuanhui Zhang, Professor, Agricultural Engineering;
Michael Ellis, Professor, Animal Sciences;
Gay Miller, Professor, Veterinary Pathobiology
Objective 1.  Develop management tools, strategies and systems for land application of animal manures and effluents that optimize efficient, environmentally friendly utilization of nutrients and are compatible with sustained land and water quality. 

Illinois Certified Livestock Manager Training survey

Begun in the winter of 1996-97, the Illinois Certified Livestock Manager Training program is designed to certify at least one person associated with each Illinois livestock facility having over 300 animal units (US EPA AFO/CAFO designation).  University of Illinois Extension administers the training workshops, mailing study manuals to participants prior to those producers attending one of the half-day workshops offered around the state.  Extension advertises the workshops, and receives from participants the registration information and the fees to cover materials and workshop costs.  To date, the program has about 3,000 operations attending.  The Illinois Dept of Agriculture estimates there are 2,700 AFO’s (300-1,000 animal units) and 500 CAFO’s in the state, so Extension apparently is seeing most of the audience.  The recertification cycle is three years.

To verify relevance of the program and its impacts along the lines of its stated purpose, Extension enlisted the help of the college program evaluation specialists for a survey of CLM participants.  The 2002-2003 list of participants (495 valid addresses) was chosen because that was the first year the MWPS/EPA Livestock and Poultry Environmental Stewardship National Curriculum (LPES) (http://www.lpes.org) was used by Extension as the workshop material and study manual.  The mail survey, sent about a month after the last workshop of the season, was returned by 347 participants, a response rate of 70%.  A similar, but smaller scale, survey (92 respondents at about the same response rate) was performed in 1999-2000 from roughly the same pool of workshop participants.  The following discussion relates highlights of the 30-question 2003 survey.

Demographics: 83% of the respondents classified themselves as owners or owner-operators.  Participants classified their operations as 69% swine, 19% beef, 9% dairy and 3% poultry.  Seventy percent said they were certified in the first year of the program (1997), so they had some experience with the overall CLM process.  A quarter of the respondents said there was more than one person at the operation who is certified.  Half the producers said they had been through the certification process three times (i.e. from the start of the program).

Eighty-three percent of the respondents said they have “easy access” to a personal computer, and 74% have “easy access” to the Internet.  Those questions were posed to gauge Extension’s future programming emphasis with on-line education.  Only six percent of the respondents had taken or attempted to take the on-line quizzes that have been offered by Illinois Extension for a couple of years.  Yet 47% of the respondents said they knew, prior to the workshop series they attended, that passing the on-line quizzes was the equivalent of workshop attendance, i.e. was officially recognized by the regulatory authority (IL Dept. of Agriculture) as an option to the attendance requirement.

A major emphasis of the 2002-2003 workshop series was nutrient management planning. 
About half the respondents said they had a nutrient management plan prior to the workshop they attended, and another 16% said they “plan to write a plan” as a result of attending the workshop.  Illinois state law requires facilities over 1,000 animal units to have a nutrient management plan.  We did not ask on the survey for the size of operation, as that would have identified farms in some counties.  Therefore we don’t know if the larger farms are those that have plans as required by law.

Nearly 90% already did soil testing prior to the workshops.  Eighteen percent said they increased or planned to increase the number of soil samples per field because of the workshops.  Forty-one percent said that because of the workshops they either improved or plan to improve their manure storage sampling procedures to get better representation of all the manure.  Half said they plan to increase the frequency of manure testing.

Fourteen percent claim that as a result of the workshops they will take steps to reduce the amount of feedlot runoff reaching surface waters; 86% said they already do this well.

Eighty-two percent say they already perform regular inspections of manure storage and handling equipment (two-thirds in 2000).  However, only 29% claim they keep records of inspections (28% in 2000); another 50% said they either improved already or plan to keep records as a result of the workshops.

Eleven percent of the 2003 survey respondents said they changed their methods of manure application, from broadcast to soil injected, to either reduce odor or conserve nutrients.  In 2000, a similar proportion (13%) made the same practice change.

Forty-four percent of respondents say they already posted a list of emergency phone numbers, but another 45% said they either now post a list because of the workshops (6.9%), or plan to do it (38.1%).  In the 2000 survey, 53% either posted a list prior to the workshops or put up the list as a result of the workshops. 

Eighty-one percent of all producers answered the question about “developed a response plan including maps of the facility.”  Only 31% of those had an emergency response plan prior to the workshops, and another 6% devised a plan as a result of the workshops; 47% propose to do so.  In 2000, 11% said they had an emergency response plan prior to the workshops, and 21.3 % said they developed a plan because of having attended a workshop.  The proportion who said they intend to develop an emergency response plan was similar in both surveys, 49% in 2000.

In 2000, about a third of the respondents who answered the question “do you have equipment available to contain/clean up a manure spill?” in the affirmative; in this survey 46.4% said they had equipment available prior to the workshops.

Twenty-seven percent of the operations surveyed said they have at least three full-time employees, and 42% have at least one part-time employee.  Sixty-seven percent answered the question about training of employees in emergency response procedures.  Half of those producers said they have already trained their employees in emergency response procedures; another six percent said they now have done training because of the workshops; and another third said they plan to do training.  (These training responses are very similar to the 2000 survey).

Fifty percent of the operators said they already took steps to minimize clean water entering manure storages; two percent said they made changes as a result of the workshops and twelve percent said they plan to reduce water entering storages.  In 2000, sixty percent said they already did something, eight percent said the workshops persuaded them to improve, and 23 percent said they planned to change.

Conclusions

(1) Illinois livestock producers have made some practice changes over time, whether in direct response to the training workshops or because of other factors.  It is difficult to link practice changes to the workshops.  In the unformatted responses, many farmers indicated considerable pride in how they operate in regard to environmental protection.  They were getting the messages from the workshops but did not want to, or did not feel they needed to, attribute performance to formal educational efforts connected to legislation.

(2) Numbers of farmers making changes have been relatively small.  Risk avoidance does not seem to be a large incentive. 

Of the producers who say they have taken the simpler steps regarding emergency response planning, about half have posted emergency phone numbers by the phone, about a third have developed emergency response plans, and roughly half claim to have done emergency-response training of their employees.  Equipment and storage inspections also seem to have been adopted by a relatively large number of producers.  These numbers did not change much between the 2000 and 2003 surveys.  The more capital-intensive practice changes, such as reducing contaminated feedlot runoff to surface water, are already claimed by a large proportion of the farmers.  While few producers said that workshop attendance already had caused them to add equipment or take other major steps (and there was not enough time in many cases between the workshops and the survey to have done much), typically one-fourth to one-third of the producers claimed they plan to improve those areas requiring capital investment. 

(3) Extension’s CLM training was viewed as professional and sufficient quality and quantity, but a “necessary evil” given the regulatory climate.  Most criticisms were aimed at making the training workshop content more relevant, but not at changing the training process itself or the personnel.  Respondents seemed to agree that workshop attendance was meaningful because of producer interaction times and information gained.  The new workshop material (Livestock and Poultry Environmental Stewardship National Curriculum) was seen as high quality and a valuable resource, but containing far too much material from which regulatory agencies should select test questions.

University of Illinois Extension plans to do more detailed analysis of the survey results to determine interactive effects.

c. Usefulness of findings and impacts (Objective 1).

A survey of 495 participants (mostly livestock producers) in the Illinois Certified Livestock Manager Training program showed rates of adoption of management practices and technologies related to environmental protection and nuisance avoidance.  Ninety-four percent of the respondents using the Livestock and Poultry Environmental Stewardship National Curriculum rated the training materials as “parts of it are informative” to “well worth reading.”   Half the respondents said they had a nutrient management plan prior to attending training, and another sixteen percent intend to write plans because of the training.  Only 13% said they had an emergency response plan prior to the training, but another six percent said they wrote plans because of the training.  Forty-seven percent said they intend to develop emergency response plans.  In general, the survey showed that (1) most Illinois livestock producers believe they are doing a good job of environmental protection, but (2) they are reluctant to adopt more formal methods of tracking performance and reducing risk, such as writing nutrient management and emergency response plans.  The unformatted responses indicate that producers find the paperwork components too time consuming, complex and frustrating; and there is a great need for development of simplified tools, including computer software, for improving those processes.

d.  Planned work for the next year.

University of Illinois Extension will perform further analysis of the 2003 survey results to find interactions among responses, and will implement and report improvements to the Certified Livestock Manager training program as warranted.
Objective 2.  Develop, evaluate, and refine physical, chemical and biological treatment processes in engineered and natural systems for management of manures and other wastes.

Task 4. Develop and evaluate biological or thermochemical treatment of animal manures for conversion into value-added products.

University of Illinois researchers have upgraded the batch processing thermochemical conversion process, which produces a crude oil product from manure solids, to a mixed-reactor continuous process, on a laboratory scale.  To date, the continuous flow processor has not yet been commissioned fully.

d. Planned work for next year.

Continuous Thermochemical Conversion of swine manure to crude oil product.

Based on the preliminary study using the batch reactor, the following operating conditions will be used in a continuous TCC processor development:
 The following factors and analytical parameters will be evaluated to establish the technical feasibility, economical viability, and environmental soundness of the proposed TCC process:
Objective 3. Develop methodology, technology, and management practices to reduce odors, gases, airborne microflora, particulate matter, and other airborne emissions from animal production systems. 

Task 3. Emission control technology development and selection for site-specific cases.

Development and Evaluation of large Concentric Dedusters (Diffusion, Coagulation, and Separation) in Swine Building Ventilation Systems

Research has shown that odor is associated with dust, and that gases and fine particles can be captured by larger particles via diffusion and coagulation. An aerodynamic deduster designed and tested in laboratory showed that it could capture particulate matter at an overall efficiency of 85%. Therefore, it is technically possible to reduce the dust, odor, and gas emission simultaneously by combining the aerodynamic separator with a wet scrubber where diffusion and coagulation apply. Pollutants are captured by relatively large droplets, separated from the air stream, and collected by the device before entering ambient. This process is termed diffusion, coagulation, and separation (DCS).  The DCS system aerodynamically separates particles from the air stream without physical contact with filtration media such as fiber filters, and therefore, frequent cleaning or replacement is not required. 
To date, three prototypes -- a bench scale prototype, pilot scale prototype #1, and pilot scale prototype #2 -- were developed and evaluated.  The bench scale prototype was designed by attaching the aerodynamic deduster to a wet scrubber. Laboratory tests showed that 85% of the particulates could be removed by this bench scale prototype with low energy consumption and 57% of the ammonia was removed when the inlet ammonia concentration was around 10 ppm. However, the ammonia removal efficiency did not increase much at higher inlet ammonia concentrations of 30 or 50 ppm.
The capacities of both prototype #1 and #2 were 4000 cfm. Prototype #1 was made of 4 concentric annular dedusters horizontally mounted on the sidewall of a swine building, while prototype #2 was made of 2 concentric annular dedusters installed vertically. Both prototypes were evaluated in swine buildings.  The dust mass removal efficiency of prototype #1 and #2 were about 90% and 80%, respectively, and the ammonia removal efficiencies were about 25% and 35%, respectively.  The dust mass removal efficiency of either pilot scale prototype varied slightly with residence time, which was determined by the fan power level.  However, the residence time did have significant influence on gas removal efficiency; and the longer the residence time (i.e. the lower the airflow rate), the higher the gas removal efficiency.
The difference in performances between these two pilot scale prototypes was due to the designs.  Prototype #2 contains fewer concentric multi-annular dedusters, which slightly decreased the dust removal efficiency.  On the other hand, the gas removal efficiency increased significantly due to the longer residence time for gas removal.  Furthermore, the vertical DCS was simpler in structure and cost less to manufacture and operate.  Therefore, the overall performance of prototype #2 is better than its predecessor.
Next steps in design: the design of the next generation DCS system will be based on the field evaluations of these two pilot scale prototypes. A vertical setup is recommended in favor of long residence time, little space requirement, and higher stack for faster dilution of emissions.  More nozzles at the lower stage and longer separation sections are recommended.  The next generation DCS, prototype #3, is expected to have higher efficiency for both dust and gaseous pollutants without increasing substantially increasing cost.

Room Washing Effects on Odor and Emissions

The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of swine confinement room washing on the reduction of ammonia concentration, odor intensity, and volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions in swine facilities and growth performance of pigs.
The study was carried out using a cross over design with two treatments (washing and no-washing); each treatment had four replicates and each replicate had a 3-week period.  The growing-finishing building was divided into two identical rooms; a solid partition separates the rooms.  Washing was switched between the rooms for each replicate. 

A total of 112 crossbred pigs with average initial body weight of 35 kg were randomly allotted in the rooms (56 pigs were randomly allotted across pens in each room on the basis of weight, gender and genotype).  Since each room had 7 pens, 8 pigs were allotted in each pen, giving a space allowance of 1.2 m2 per pig.

Both rooms had the same size and number of fans to provide the same environmental conditions with the same ventilation rate and airflow rate.  Both rooms were ventilated with one fan per room in the south wall of the building and four air inlets located along the north wall; each inlet had an adjustable baffle to control airflow rate.  A heater in each room maintained the room temperature of 70°F during the experimental period. 

The treatment room was washed every day at around 9:30 AM and before the start of each experiment.  A commercial power washer was used to wash the pens, fences, floors, and walls up to 4 feet high.  The slurry pits were drained and flushed with water once a week and each was refilled with approximately 10 gallons of fresh water.
Pigs in the washing room showed 6.4% lower average daily gain than those in the control room; however, the difference was not statistically significant (p>0.05).  The average feed intake was higher in the washing room than in the control room, however the difference was also not statistically significant (p>0.05).  The gain to feed ratio was significantly higher in pigs of the control room than in those of the treatment room (p<0.05). 

During the overall experimental period, room washing decreased the production/emission of dust, ammonia, sulfur containing VOC, and odor intensity, however there were no significant differences between treatments and the total VOC was not influenced by room washing.
During replication 2 and 3, dust concentration was positively affected by washing, so the washed room showed lower dust concentration compared to that of control room.  However, the dust concentration in the washed room was higher than those in the control room during replication 1 and 4.  The reason why the dust concentrations between the two rooms are not different is the power washer could have blown the dust during washing, even though water can wash out dust in the washing room.  Based on this hypothesis, dust concentration might be reduced if the method of cleaning is carefully considered.

Ammonia concentration was lower in the treatment room than in the control room during the whole experimental period.  Odor intensity was higher in the control building than that of the treatment building during the overall experimental period. This result supports the hypothesis that the washing of swine buildings decreases nuisance odor.  In the current study, the dilution thresholds of odor intensity were 679 and 433 odor units (OU) in the control and washing rooms, respectively.

Total VOC was not reduced by building cleaning; rather, the concentration of total VOC in the washed room was slightly higher compared to the control room during the overall experimental period. However, sulfur VOC concentration was affected by building washing, sulfur VOC concentration being lowered in the washed room compared to control room on the average.

The study on the effect of frequent cleaning practices on odor and dust emission reduction efficiency has been completed.  Results show that daily room washing reduced ammonia concentration, odor intensity, and sulfur VOC concentration.  However, dust and total VOC concentrations were not clearly influenced by room washing.  Furthermore, growth performances of pigs were negatively affected by room washing. This study suggests that daily and careful washing may lower odor emissions in swine facilities.  However, further research is needed to evaluate other washing methods that will not negatively affect the animal performance.


Activated carbon filter for ventilation air

CE6 vapor phase carbon filters (Cameron Carbon Inc. Baltimore, Maryland) were used as a filter material in this study, to determine whether activated carbon could effectively remove odors from swine building ventilation exhaust air.  CE6 filters have been used for HVAC air purification, VOC emission control, soil vapor extraction emission control, tank vent emission control, and air stripper exhaust purification and odor control.

The carbon filter housing was 60 x 60 x 30 cm (24 in. x 24 in. x 12 in.), held six carbon trays, and contained approximately 40 kg (90 lbs) of media.  The assembly was rated at 150 m/min (or 500 fpm) for single pass airflow.  All experiments were conducted at a swine finishing building at the Moorman Farm Swine Research Facility, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  The swine room housed 117 pigs.  The filter chamber used in the experiments was 120 cm long x 60 cm wide x 30 cm high (48 in. x 24 in. x 12 in.).  It was connected to a 22.5 cm (9 in) diameter exhaust fan by a flexible plastic duct.  Throughout the experiment, the exhaust fan delivered a ventilation rate of about 1360 m3/h (800 cfm) for the carbon filter, based on calibrations performed in the University of Illinois Dept. of Agricultural Engineering fan test chamber. 

A Filtrete™ Micro Allergen Reduction ( 3M Company) filter took out some of the dust from the exhaust air before it reached the carbon filter assembly.  Odor was measured from three sampling locations within the filter housing along the path of the ventilation air.

Air samples were collected from the three sampling locations in the filter chamber while a “fresh” air sample was collected from a location approximately 1 mile upwind from the barn. 
The average static pressures inside of the chamber for the each measurement period were 79.7 Pa (0.32 in. H2O), 82.1 Pa (0.33 in. H2O) and 84.7 Pa (0.34 in. H2O), respectively.

Variations of odor intensity in OU/m3 were significantly different only in one of the monthly tests (December).  There was no statistical difference for efficiency of carbon filter among the sampling locations on the test chamber (P > 0.05).  However,  there was a numerical odor reduction rate of 26% between sampling point 1, the filter inlet (226.1 OU/m3) and sampling point 3, the filter outlet (166. 8 OU/m3), indicating some effect by the activated carbon.

Acknowledgement.  Funding for the above projects by the Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research is gratefully acknowledged.

Shallow pit flushing frequency effects in farrowing rooms

The specific objective of this study was to determine the effect of flushing frequency on odor and gas (ammonia, hydrogen sulfide) levels in farrowing facilities.  The trials were conducted at a commercial breed-to-wean facility in western Illinois.  The site has one farrowing house with fourteen identical rooms, each containing 28 farrowing crates, and one gestation building with a total of 2944 gestation crates.  The farrowing unit is connected to the gestation facility by a 50-foot alleyway, located east of the gestation barn.  Four farrowing rooms were selected for the study, which was carried out on five occasions over an 8-month period from October 29th to June 17th 2003.  The study was carried out in five replicates over time with the first replicate that used rooms 1 and 14 being carried out from October 29th to November 12th and the second replicate that used rooms 7 and 8 being carried out from December 3rd to 17th.  A third replicate repeated rooms 1 and 14 throughout April 14th to 28th.  The fourth and fifth replicates used rooms 5 through 8 and were carried out from May 14th to 28th and June 3rd to 17th, respectively. 

The farrowing rooms each housed 28 sows in farrowing crates.  Floors were plastic slats over a pit (3-foot deep) underneath each room.  When flushed (i.e. drained and a nominal amount of fresh water added to cover the bottom of the pit), the slurry drained into two pipes that ran parallel at either end of each room emptying into a 12-foot deep pit underneath the breeding/gestation barn.

Sows were moved into the rooms approximately one day before the first sampling day (day 1) and remained there for two weeks (the average weaning age for this facility was 14 days). 
For the first replicate of this study, rooms 1 and 14 were chosen to represent either end of the fourteen rooms.  These rooms were sampled once per week for three weeks on October 29th, November 5th and 12th.  Samples were taken at 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. each day.  On each occasion, samples were taken from two locations, one inside the room at the exhaust fan and the other outside the building at the pit fan.  Pits were flushed after the 8:00 a.m. sampling on day 8.  Additional sampling measurements were taken on day 8, November 6th.   The second replicate was conducted between December 3rd and 17th using rooms 7 and 8 to represent approximately the middle of the fourteen rooms.  Pits were again flushed after the 8:00 a.m. sampling on day 8 and the additional sampling measurements taken on December 11th.  Rooms 1 and 14 were repeated for a third replicate during April.  The final two replicates of this study were conducted with rooms 5-8 beginning on May 13th and concluding on June 17th.  All measurements in these rooms were taken as previously described in all rooms, except odor samples were not taken in Room 5 and 6. 

Samples were collected approximately one day after the sows were moved into the farrowing room (d 1) and again one week later (d 8).  In the treated room, pits were flushed on day 8 after the morning sampling had taken place.  Additional samples were taken on day 9 and also on day 15 before the piglets were weaned.  Sampling inside the room was carried out in front of the center exhaust fan and outside sampling was carried out in front of the pit fan.   Samples of air for measuring odor concentration were pumped into 10 L Tedlar air sampling bags.  These bags were transported to the University of Illinois for evaluation via olfactometry, which was carried out on the day following sampling. 

Ammonia and hydrogen sulfide concentrations were measured in duplicate at each sampling location using colorimetric detector tubes and a gas-sampling pump.  Room temperature and relative humidity were monitored.

Odor units increased linearly with sampling day both at the exhaust fan and the pit fan.  All gas levels increased from the first week of the study (sampling day 1), through the second week of the study (days 8 and 9), to the third and final week of the study (day 15).  Measurements taken on days 8 and 9 were generally very similar. 

There was no significant (P<0.05) effect for either odor or gas measurements when comparing flushed and control rooms.  For the control (untreated) rooms, the only statistically significant difference was for hydrogen sulfide levels at the pit fan, which were higher on day 9 than on day 8.  For the treated (flushed) rooms, there was no difference (P < 0.05) in the levels found on day 9 compared to day 8.  All of the levels found on day 9 were lower than those found on day 8, but none of the differences was statistically significant.  In addition, by day 15 the ammonia and hydrogen sulfide levels in the treated rooms were generally similar (P < 0.05) to those in the control rooms.  In the case of hydrogen sulfide levels at the exhaust fan, levels were actually higher in the treated rooms than in the control rooms.

Puremax® Water Treatment Systems evaluation

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of Puremax® Water Treatment Systems on odor, gas (ammonia, hydrogen sulfide) and dust levels in farrowing facilities at a commercial swine farm.  The Puremax® Water Treatment System is an electrical device that was designed to reduce mineral build-up and increase biological activity in water treatment systems.  Probes placed within the manure pit create electrical fields, which are said to ultimately reduce nitrogen concentrations and odor within the barn.  Company representatives stipulated system installation and operation during the study.

This study was conducted at a farm located in western Illinois.  The site is the same as that studied in the pit flushing frequency research.  Two farrowing rooms out of 14 were selected for the study, which was carried out on three occasions over an 11-week period from February 17th to April 28th, 2003.  The study was carried out in three replicates over time with the first replicate being carried out from February 17 to March 3rd and the second replicate being carried out from March 10th to 24th.  Due to an equipment malfunction during the first replicate, a third replicate was carried out from April 14th to April 28th. 
   
For each replicate of this study, rooms 1 and 2 were sampled.  Room 2 was equipped with the Puremax® technology on February 17th.  These rooms were sampled once per week for three weeks on February 17th, 24th and March 3rd.  Samples were taken at 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. each day.  On each occasion, samples were taken from two locations, one inside the room at the exhaust fan and the other outside the building at the pit fan.  The second replicate was conducted between March 10th and 24th, followed by a third replicate between April 14th and 28th. 

Samples were collected approximately one day after the sows were moved into the farrowing room (d 1) and again one week later (d 8). Additional samples were taken on day 15 before the piglets were weaned.  Sampling inside the room was carried out in front of the center exhaust fan and outside sampling was carried out in front of the pit fan.  Samples of air for measuring odor concentration were pumped into 10 L Tedlar air sampling bags and transported to the University of Illinois for odor evaluation, which was carried out on the day following sampling.
 
Ammonia and hydrogen sulfide concentrations were measured in duplicate at each sampling location using colorimetric detector tubes and a gas-sampling pump.  Room temperature and relative humidity were monitored in each room.

For the treated room, the only statistically significant (P < 0.05) difference was for ammonia concentrations at the pit fan.  Ammonia concentrations were lower at the pit fan in the room with the Puremax® technology.  There were no statistically significant differences in odor, hydrogen sulfide or ammonia at the exhaust fan. 
 
Acknowledgement

Funding for the two above studies by the State of Illinois Office of the Attorney General is gratefully acknowledged.

c. Usefulness of findings and impacts. (Objective 3, Task 3).

Room washing effects on odor and emissions.  Daily room washing reduced ammonia concentration, odor intensity, and sulfur VOC concentration.  However, dust and total VOC concentrations were not clearly influenced by room washing.  Furthermore, growth performance of pigs was negatively affected by room washing.  This study suggests that daily washing of swine facilities by a thorough and careful method might lower odor emissions from the facilities.  However, further research is needed to find washing methods that will not negatively affect animal performance.

Activated carbon filter for ventilation air.  A commercially available activated-carbon filter material was tested for its ability to remove odors from exhaust ventilation air from a farrowing room.  Potential advantages of the activated-carbon material for exhaust air treatment are: relatively inexpensive material; spent carbon material may be rejuvenated and re-used; low environmental degradation potential for discarded material; wide-ranging use of material in other industrial applications that may be converted to use in livestock ventilation systems.  While a fairly large numerical reduction in odor dilutions to threshold was obtained by the carbon filter, the cost in terms of pressure drop (fan operating cost) was high.  The study indicates that activated carbon for removal of odors from swine building ventilation air would be an expensive technology.

Shallow pit flushing frequency effects in farrowing rooms.  Increasing the frequency of manure removal from under slats has been recommended for many years as a way to reduce building gas and odor emissions.  The practice at the farrowing facility studied was to flush the pits in the farrowing rooms after each batch of sows had been weaned (i.e. every 15 days).  The results of this study, involving draining the pit twice as often, showed a relatively small effect on gas levels at the exhaust and pit fans on the day following the flushing.  However, by the last day of the study, gas and odor levels were similar between the treated and untreated rooms.  This suggests a limited effect of flushing frequency on reducing gas levels in the farrowing facility.

Puremax® Water Treatment Systems evaluation.  The Puremax® Water Treatment System is an electrical device that was designed to reduce mineral build-up and increase biological activity in water treatment systems.  Probes placed within a manure pit allegedly create electrical fields, which are claimed to reduce nitrogen concentrations and odor within the barn.  The treatment of manure with the Puremax® technology, in pits beneath slotted floors in farrowing rooms, resulted in a lower ammonia concentration at the pit fan.  There were no statistically significant differences in odor, hydrogen sulfide, or ammonia at the exhaust fan.  These results suggest that the Puremax® System, as installed and operated during tests, did not have the effect on odor and gas emissions that was hoped for by its manufacturer. 

Large Concentric dedusters in swine building ventilation systems.  Two 4,000 cfm deduster systems incorporating diffusion, coagulation and separation functions, were tested in swine buildings, to determine their efficiencies in dust and ammonia removal from ventilation air.  Dust mass removal efficiencies up to 90% and ammonia removal up to 35% were achieved.  Testing indicated further design improvements that could increase both dust and water-soluble gas removal efficiencies.

d. Planned work for next year.

Ongoing studies at the commercial swine facility.

These studies will be carried out in the farrowing rooms and a number of nutritional approaches to odor control will be evaluated.  Plans are being developed with the feed supplier for the manufacture of the study diets (for this and the other nutritional studies) including comparison of pelleted and meal feed; comparison of high and low fat diets; and evaluation of low protein, synthetic amino acid fortified diets.

Evaluation of Oil Sprinkling to Reduce Dust and Gas Levels
We plan to begin evaluating the effectiveness of oil sprinkling on the reduction of dust and gas levels in the farrowing rooms, during fall 2003. 

Dust sampling
Four Total Suspended Particulate (TSP) sampling systems have been manufactured by technicians in the Department of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Illinois and have been installed in four farrowing rooms at the commercial swine facility.  Dust particle size measurements continue to be carried out with the laser particle counter. 

Interviews with Neighbors
Interviews with neighbors of the commercial farm under study were conducted in May and June.  Interviews will be repeated in the Fall of 2003, to determine whether odor abatement strategies are having any effect.

Filter on exhaust port of the proposed new sealed manure store
Construction of a new covered manure storage tank at the commercial facility was initiated mid-July.  A biofilter will be used to treat air exhausted from the headspace of the tank, and biofilter performance parameters will be compared with regard to odor control effectiveness.
Publications

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