INTERMITTENT MEASUREMENTS TO ESTIMATE AMMONIA EMISSIONS FROM MANURE STORAGE SYSTEMS

Ali Youssef (1) , V Exadaktylos (1) , Colin Burton (2) , Paul Robin (3) , Daniel Berckmans (1)

1 KU Leuven - Catholic University of Leuven = Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
2 CEMAGREF - Centre national du machinisme agricole, du génie rural, des eaux et forêts
3 SAS - Sol Agro et hydrosystème Spatialisation

The production of animals must comply with several environmental requirements. Monitoring ammonia emissions from agr icultural buildings and storage systems is one of them. To reduce cost, techniques were developed that use inexpensive measuring equipment and do not require long periods of measurements, a technique based on intermittent measurements of amm onia was developed for mechanically ventilated barns. More specifically, e asily-measured variables, such as ventilation rate, temperature, and animal weight are measured continuously, while the ammonia emission rate is measured intermittently at six well-selected days per year. Mathematical modelling techniques are subsequently used to estimate the ammonia emission rate online. The intermittent ammonia meas urements are used to regularly calibrate the model. However, for manure stores, thi s technique has never been applied due to lack of a reliable ventilation rate measurem ent system. The objective of this paper is to introduce a procedure to determine the ammonia emissions from manure storage systems in the field, based on intermittent measurements of the ammonia emission rate. In this study, an experimental tank was filled with fattening pig slurry. One was covered with a mechanically ventilated cover. Based on the knowledge that ammonia emissions are strongly related to air and m anure temperature, a technique was developed to estimate ammonia emissions online. A steady-state regression model was used to calculate the cumulative ammonia emissio ns over the complete measurement period with 9% accuracy. This paper demo nstrates the possibilities of model-based procedures for the development of an in expensive system for determination of ammonia emissions.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Ali Youssef, V Exadaktylos, Colin Burton, Paul Robin, Daniel Berckmans. INTERMITTENT MEASUREMENTS TO ESTIMATE AMMONIA EMISSIONS FROM MANURE STORAGE SYSTEMS. Emissions of gas and dust from livestock, 2013. ⟨hal-01461132⟩