Development of site-specific odor impact distance guideline for swine production system
Abstract
The determination of odor-based setbacks for swine facilities is an important issue for the pork production industry. Sufficient setbacks prevent costly nuisance complaints and lawsuits, and excessive setbacks stifle expansion. Therefore, a science-based setback estimation tool to guide and educate livestock producers and regulators is needed. This dissertation describes the measurement of odor and gas emissions from commercial swine nurseries, of finishing pigs housed in environmental rooms, and from anaerobic treatments of swine manure. An eight-member odor panel evaluated odor concentration with a dynamic olfactometer and odor intensity and hedonic tone at full strength. Odor emission rate can be regarded as the total odor load per unit of time leaving a particular process. The product of odor concentrations and volumetric airflow (e.g. from ventilation exhausts of buildings, flux chamber, or across land) gives the rate of odor emission in OU/s. State of the art equipment were applied to the research for measuring gas concentrations, including ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide. A new simple-to-use, site-specific setback guideline was developed specifically for U.S. swine production facilities. The guideline at least partially accounts for wind frequency, land use, topography, orientation and shape, facility size, building design and management, manure handling characteristics, and odor abatement effectiveness. Odor emission factors were based in part on actual odor emission measurements and research included in this dissertation. The guideline is now a planning and educational tool for determining odor impact distance from swine facilities. An interactive version of the guideline has been published on the World Wide Web at www.agairquality.com.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Heber, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Agricultural engineering|Environmental engineering|Environmental science|Livestock
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