Continuous Monitoring of Ammonia, Hydrogen Sulfide
Continuous Monitoring of Ammonia, Hydrogen Sulfide
Continuous Monitoring of Ammonia, Hydrogen Sulfide
Abstract. Three naturally ventilated animal buildings (swine, dairy, and turkey) were monitored
continuously for a 10-day period during the summer and a 10-day period in the winter of 2001 for
hydrogen sulfide and ammonia. Grab samples of dust and odor were also made during these
monitoring periods. Emissions of ammonia were similar to that found in European literature.
Significant variations were found between winter and summer emissions on the turkey barn.
Ammonia emissions did not increase with increasing building ventilation rate.
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Introduction
Information regarding the concentration and emissions of gases and dust from livestock facilities
is greatly needed. Concentrations of dust and various gases in livestock facilities can impact
both human and animal health. These indoor air concentrations of dust, hydrogen sulfide and
ammonia are regulated through the Occupational Health and Safety Administration
(www.OSHA.gov). Recent attention however has been placed on the ambient air quality
surrounding livestock facilities. This ambient air quality is a function of the amount of dust and
gases emitted from the facilities and the downwind transport and transformation of these
constituents. Environmental regulatory agencies at both the state and local level are currently
reviewing emissions of gases and dust from livestock facilities in an attempt to determine if
these facilities 1) violate current air emission standards, or 2) have a significant impact on
ambient air quality. This study was designed to help answer these questions through the
continuous measurement of emissions of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and particulate matter in
three representative livestock facilities. A second related project is reviewing the downwind
transport and air dispersion modeling from these facilities, while a third related project attempts
to correlate odor emissions to specific gas emissions or manure chemistry. Results from these
other projects are reported separately.
A recent European study documented ammonia and dust emissions from several livestock and
poultry facilities in four countries in Europe (Takai et al., 1998; Groot Koerkamp et al., 1998).
Results from these studies are summarized in Table 1 and Table 2. Both gas and dust
emissions rates were a function of the ventilation rate of the building and the concentration of
the constituents in the exhaust air. These concentrations and ventilation rates are affected by a
variety of factors including indoor and outdoor temperatures, building design, manure handling
system, animal diet, animal numbers and sizes, etc. As such, and as can be seen in Table 1,
there is a large variation in emission values reported. Dust emission variations were attributed to
differences in housing design and management, and climatic differences between countries. It
is likely that similar variations in emissions would be found in similar buildings throughout the
United States and possibly between similar sites in Minnesota. As such, it is important to review
the data in this study as a first step in quantifying emissions from these types of buildings.
Table 1. Ammonia emissions from European study (Groot Koerkamp et al., 1998)
mg/h/500 kg live weight
Housing England The Netherlands Denmark Germany
Broilers, litter 8294 4179 2208 7499
Swine finish, slats 2592 2076 2568 2398
Dairy, freestall 1048 1769 843 1168
2
Limited data exists on the emissions of hydrogen sulfide and odor from livestock and poultry
facilities. Most of the recent studies documenting these emissions have been conducted at the
University of Minnesota or Purdue University. Emission values reported in literature are given in
Tables 3 and 4. Note that these values were converted to common units as indicated in Wood et
al. (2001).
Table 3. Hydrogen sulfide emissions found in literature.
Housing Hydrogen sulfide Units Source
Broilers, litter 1 mg/hr/m2 Wood et al., 2001
Swine finish, slats 50 mg/hr/m2 Wood et al., 2001
7-97 mg/hr/m2 Ni et al., 1998
1-30 mg/hr/m2 Heber et al., 1997
Dairy, freestall 3.6 mg/hr/m2 Wood et al., 2001
Methodology
Air emissions monitoring was conducted at one turkey, one swine and one dairy farm in
Minnesota. Continuous monitoring of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide emissions was done at
each site for approximately ten days during cold weather and ten days during warm weather
(Table 5). Grab dust samples of dust were taken twice each monitoring period while odor
samples were taken once during the summer monitoring period. Sites were chosen based on
the lack of other livestock or poultry farms nearby, the cooperators willingness to participate in
the project, and the timing of the animal production cycles. The goal was to monitor barns that
were at or near capacity and with near market weight or mature animals, assuming that this
would provide the worst case or highest gas and dust emissions.
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Turkey site
The turkey barn monitored consisted of a single grow-out barn. The barn was a conventional
18.3 x 170.7 m (60 x 560 ft) curtain sided barn oriented north-south. Eight-week old birds enter
the barn at approximately eight pounds. Birds leave the building after sixteen weeks and weigh
approximately 40 lbs. The building has a capacity of 12,000 birds.
Swine Site:
The swine site consisted of two 2000 head finishing barns oriented east-west. Each of the 2000
head barns divided into two 1000-head rooms. The 12.5 x 121.9 m (41 x 400 ft) barns were all
curtain sided, deep pitted barns. The barns were mechanically ventilated in cold weather (pit
fans) and naturally ventilated in warm weather. Only one of the four barns was monitored for air
emissions.
Dairy Site:
The dairy barn monitored was a 550 cow freestall barn, 33.5 x 103.7 m (110 x 340 ft), oriented
east-west. It was a naturally ventilated, skid loader scrape barn with mattresses and sawdust
bedding in the freestalls. Several other odor sources were present on the farm but did not
interfere with the emissions monitoring.
4
Table 6. Location of sampling lines in barns.
x,y,z coordinates in barn* (m)
x= distance east from west side of barn
y=distance north from south end of barn
z=height of sampling line above floor
Barn and season Line 1 Line 2 Line 3
Turkey winter 4.5, 24.3, 1.8 9.1, 24.3, 1.8 13.7, 24.3, 1.8
Turkey summer 4.5, 24.3, 1.8 ambient 13.7, 24.3, 1.8
Swine winter 30, 4.5, 1.8 30.5, 9.1, 1.8 30.5, 13.7, 1.8
Swine summer 30.5, 4.5, 1.8 ambient 30.5, 13.7, 1.8
Dairy winter 30.5, 7.6, 3.0 30.5, 15.2, 5.2 30.5, 24.3, 3.0
Dairy summer 30.5, 7.6, 3.0 ambient 30.5, 24.3, 3.0
North
Barn
z
y
*
East
x
Dust Measurements
Two, 24-hour dust measurements were made each sampling period. Dust sampling equipment
was located near the center of each of the barns at heights of 7 ft, 5 ft and 10 ft above the floor
for the turkey, swine, and dairy sites, respectively. Four different dust samplers were used to
determine concentrations of the different particle sizes in the barns. Current standards for indoor
air quality in livestock and poultry facilities typically use measurements of “inhalable” and
“respirable” dust (particles less than 20 micron* and 5 micron*) while ambient air quality
standards commonly refer to “PM10” (particles less than 10 microns). Total dust is also a
measure commonly used but due to the different measurement methods used, “total dust”
concentrations are slightly misleading and often can be less than the “inhalable” concentrations.
“Total,” “inhalable,” and “respirable” dust, were measured using a standard filter cassette
system (SKC Model 225-70A and 225-01-10, SKC, Eighty Four, PA). PM10 (particles less than
10 microns) were measured using a MiniVol Portable Air Sampler (Airmetrics, Eugene OR).
“Total,” “inhalable,” and “respirable” dust measurements were sampled in duplicate each
sampling time for a total of four data sets per sampling period. Duplicate PM10 measurements
were not conducted because of limited equipment so only two measurements for each sampling
period were made.
5
Ventilation measurements
Ventilation rates are one of the most important yet difficult measurements to make when
evaluating emissions from naturally ventilated buildings. For this study, the “carbon dioxide
balance method” was used to determine the ventilation rates (Albright, 1990). This method
compares the ambient carbon dioxide to the carbon dioxide concentrations in the exhaust. This
difference is related to the amount of carbon dioxide given off by the animals, which is estimated
using the number and weight of the animals, and the airflow through the barn. Unfortunately,
large variations in carbon dioxide can exist in buildings because of incomplete mixing in the
barn and other sources of CO2 generation (e.g., manure decomposition). A standard ambient air
concentration of carbon dioxide of 345 ppm was used in this study due to the difficulty in
accurately measuring the ambient CO2 concentrations on site.
Results
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Table 9. *Odor concentrations.
Species Sample period OU
Turkey Summer 140
Swine Summer 404
Dairy Summer 280
*Only one set of measurements taken during the summer sampling period.
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Table 12. Odor emissions*
Species Sample period OU/s/500 kg live weight OU/s/square meter of building
Turkey Summer 33 0.5
Swine Summer 55 15
Dairy Summer 101 19
*Only one set of measurements taken during the summer sampling period.
Both ammonia concentration and ventilation rate were quite variable for most of the sampling
periods (Figure 1). However, this same variability in ammonia concentration was not observed
in the ammonia emission rate. Rather, the ammonia emission rate was fairly constant during
this sampling period except for the first few days of the sampling when both high ventilation rate
and high ammonia emissions were observed. These high emissions were possibly the result of
the litter being turned just prior to the stocking of the barn. Figure 3 shows this relationship
between ventilation rate and ammonia emissions. Note there is no evidence suggesting
increased ventilation rate leads to increased ammonia emissions.
25000 120
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Dust concentrations and emissions
Dust concentrations (mean and standard deviation for four measurements) for each sampling
period are shown in Table 13. Tables 14 and 15 give the PM10 emissions for the two sampling
events. Since only one PM10 concentration was collected at each time no mean or standard
deviation could be calculated.
For comparison purposes with European data, inhalable and respirable emissions were
calculated. These values are based on the 24 hour concentrations in the barn and the average
ventilation rate during the 24 hours when the measurements were taken. These values are
found in Table 16.
Table 13. Dust concentrations.
Species Total Inhalable Respirable PM10
(mg/m3) (mg/m3) (mg/m3) (mg/m3)
Mean (sd) Mean (sd) Mean (sd) Mean (sd)
Winter
Turkey 4.26 (3.14) 3.54 (1.76) 0.51 (0.24) 1.11 (0.34)
Swine 6.86 (1.30) 4.56 (2.74) 0.44 (0.15) 1.63 (0.16)
Dairy 0.15 (0.07) 0.28 (0.11) 0.028 (0.02) 0.06 (0.02)
Summer
Turkey 2.41 (2.51) 2.46 (2.33) 0.11(0.08) 0.33 (0.31)
Swine 0.42 (0.26) 0.64 (0.07) 0.04 (0.02) 0.24 (0.14)
Dairy 0.57 (0.51) 0.88 (1.21) 0.06 (0.06) 0.37 (0.47)
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Table 16. Inhalable and respirable emissions (per animal).
mg/hr/500 kg animal
Species Average Winter Average Summer
Inhalable Respirable Inhalable Respirable
Turkey 413 59 9628 332
Swine 211 20 31 19
Dairy 265 56 528 301
Ammonia
Ammonia emissions during the winter months for all three species were similar ranging from
224 to 273 mg/hr/500 kg live weight for all species. Ammonia emissions during the warm
weather were 12,347, 2751, and 481 mg/hr/500 kg live weight for turkey, swine and dairy
respectively. This compares with average annual ammonia emissions from Europe of 2208 to
8294 mg/hr/500 kg live weight for broiler facilities, 2398 to 2592 mg/hr/500 kg live weight for
swine facilities and 843 to 1769 mg/hr/500 kg live weight for dairy facilities. These differences in
emission rates are likely the result of differences in building design, building management, and
climate between Minnesota and Europe. Also, the numbers in this study are limited to data from
only one building of each type.
In the European study (Groot Koerkamp et al 1998) and this study, the poultry barns (turkey
barns in our case) emitted more ammonia per unit live animal weight than either swine or dairy
on an annual basis. These very high emission rates (per unit live weight) from the turkey barn in
the summer are likely a result of the low bird weights during the monitoring period. In fact, the
emission rate for the building was 50 times higher in the summer vs winter based on emissions
per 500 kg of live weight but only 5 times higher based per square meter of building. More
monitoring would have to be done to verify this hypothesis, however reviewing the data on a per
area basis makes this a very likely situation. Because of this, it is necessary to monitor for
longer time periods in any facilities or at a minimum throughout the animals complete growth
cycle. The better comparison therefore is between the emission rates per area of building.
Comparisons of ammonia emissions on a per area basis suggest summer emissions are greater
than winter emissions and that swine facilities generated the highest emission rates per building
area—nearly three times higher than turkey and six times higher than dairy. Once again, more
data would be needed to verify this trend.
Dust
Dust emissions from European data suggest broilers emit the most inhalable and respirable
dust followed by swine and dairy and emissions of respirable dust were far less than emissions
of inhalable dust in all cases. Data from this study suggest a similar range in dust emissions
(Table 2 and Table 16) and a similar trend with the turkey (poultry) facility emitting the most dust
inhalable and respirable followed by dairy and swine. However, PM10 emission values were
higher in the dairy facility than in either the turkey or swine facilities. This difference in ranking is
11
likely due to building design and possibly the limited amount of data collected in this study. In
fact, on one of the two dust monitoring days at the dairy site the freestalls were being bedded
with wood shavings which may have resulted in these higher emission values. The process of
bedding the freestalls does generate significant amounts of dust therefore annual emissions of
dust may be a function of the frequency of bedding and the type of bedding material used.
Because of this fact, and similar management practices in the other facilities, long term
continuous monitoring will give better estimations of annual emissions.
Hydrogen sulfide
Hydrogen sulfide emission rates varied from 5 to nearly 550 µg/hr/m2. Other published data
reported suggest values ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 µg/hr/m2 (Ni et al., 1998; Wood et al.,
2001). These differences are likely due to the difficulties in ventilation rate measurements in
naturally ventilated facilities and differences in measurement and sampling methods. Currently
there are no “standard methods” for these types of measurements.
Hydrogen sulfide emissions were highest from the swine facility in the winter on both a per
animal weight basis and a per area basis. Summer data could not be compared among these
facilities because of the limitations of the hydrogen sulfide monitoring equipment. For the turkey
and dairy facilities, emissions of hydrogen sulfide were higher during the summer than winter.
Regulatory considerations
Regulatory considerations include both meeting ambient air quality standards and annual
emission rates of Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs). Also, under the Emergency Planning and
Community Right to Know Act (Code of Federal Register 40 Chapter J, Section 300) daily
emission values are listed for both ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. Along with this, OSHA has
established indoor air quality limits for dust, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. Table 16
summarizes some of the current applicable regulations.
With these regulations in mind, Table 17 was created to show the likely number of animals per
site that would emit quantities of gases large enough to possibly meet or exceed the different
federal limits. From this analysis, it seems as though ammonia emission may be the most likely
constituent restricting the size or triggering reporting requirements of farms with animal number
limits of 4200 dairy cows, 8300 finishing pigs, or 69,000 turkeys as per the CERCLA
requirements of 100 lbs per 24 hours. Note that these animal number estimates do not consider
other emission sources on the site such as manure storage structures or land application of
manure, so the actual number of animals per farm site to exceed these limits may be fewer.
To verify the reasonableness of these measured ammonia emission values found in this study
and the animal numbers in Table 17, a nitrogen balance was conducted. The balance compared
the amount of nitrogen excreted in the manure and urine (ASAE,1993) to the amount of nitrogen
lost through ammonia emissions as determined in this study Table 10 (using the average
emission values per area of building for summer and winter). These calculations suggest
average annual nitrogen losses of 10, 13, and 3% as a result of ammonia emissions from the
turkey, swine, and dairy barns respectively (Table 18). These results compare favorably with
estimates of Groot Koerkamp et al. (1998) for annual ammonia emissions of 0.149, 0.046, 0.018
kg N/day/1000 kg live weight for turkey swine and dairy respectively.
12
Table 16. Current regulatory standards of potential concern.
Pollutant Standards
PM10 Ambient concentration of 150 µg/m3 (0.15 mg/m3) -24 hour average)
National Ambient Air Quality Standard
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/pollsour.html
10 tons per year release of any HAP
Section 112 of the Clean Air Act
www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/pollsour.html
Total Dust Indoor air concentration 50 mg/m3
OSHA CFR 29 section 1910 http://www.osha.gov Table Z-3
Respirable dust Indoor air concentration 15 mg/m3
OSHA CFR 29 section 1910 http://www.osha.gov Table Z-3
Hydrogen Sulfide Indoor air concentration (TVL) 20 ppm 8 hour
Indoor air concentration (TVL) 50 ppm 10 minute
OSHA CFR 29 section 1190 http://www.osha.gov Table Z-2
Minnesota Rules Chapter 7009 30 ppb, 30 minute
Release of 100 lbs per 24 hours (reporting requirement)
EPA 40 CFR Chapter 1, Subchapter J, Section 302 100 lbs per 24
hours http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/
http://www.epa.gov/ceppo/ep-epre.htm
http://www.epa.gov/docs/epacfr40/chapt-I.info/subch-J.htm
Ammonia Indoor air concentration (TVL) 50 ppm 8 hour
OSHA CFR 29 section 1190 http://www.osha.gov Table Z-1
Release of 100 lbs per 24 hours (reporting requirement)
EPA 40 CFR Chapter 1, Subchapter J, Section 302 100 lbs per 24
hours http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/
http://www.epa.gov/ceppo/ep-epre.htm
http://www.epa.gov/docs/epacfr40/chapt-I.info/subch-J.htm
Multiple HAP 25 tons per year released
Section 112 of the Clean Air Act
www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/pollsour.html
Table 17. Estimates of animal numbers per site that would meet or exceed federal emission
standards (10 tons per year or 100 lbs per day) based on emission data from this study.*
Estimated Estimated # animals per site to exceed
animal density 10 ton annual emission limit (100 lb/day reportable)
Species ft2/animal Ammonia1 Hydrogen Sulfide1 PM102
Turkey 2.8 38,000 (69,000) 260 M (470 M) 192,000 (350,000)
Swine 8.1 4550 (8300) 15 M (30 M) 50,000 (92,000)
Dairy 72.8 2300 (4200) 0.5 M (1 M) 4600 (8400)
1
100 lbs per 24-hour reporting requirements standard are currently applicable
2
Both 24-hour and annual standards are currently applicable.
*Note: These animal numbers are based on average emission estimates from this study. More data would need to be
collected to verify these emission rates and estimated animal numbers. Also, since emission rates fluctuate widely
day to day the24-hour, 100 lb., reporting may be required at lower animal numbers.
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Table 18. Estimated nitrogen excretion and ammonia losses.
kg N/day/1000 kg live weight
Species ASAE Based on % excreted N loss from
excreted N Table10 ammonia
Turkey 0.62 0.073 10
Swine 0.52 0.080 13
Dairy 0.45 0.016 3
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