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Pig barns ammonia and greenhouse gas emission mitigation by slurry aeration and acid scrubber

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Abstract

Livestock production is associated with several gaseous pollutant emissions to the environment. These emissions can degrade local and regional air quality, contribute to surface water eutrophication and acid rain, and contribute to the greenhouse gas footprint of the production sector. Modern production systems must balance animal welfare and environmental pollution potential with economic reality, which is a great challenge to maintain as global demand for animal protein increases. Accordingly, gaseous emission technologies were the main target for this research, in which mitigating gas emissions of ammonia, nitrous oxide, and methane from pig production facilities via slurry aeration system was tested. Five treatments with different airflow rates in the test room were examined continuously over a period of 6 weeks and the results were compared with the control room. Test results indicate that the highest mitigation potentials were 12, 57.6, and 10.4% for nitrous oxide, methane, and ammonia, respectively. Subsequently directing exhaust air into a sulfuric acid air scrubber at 3.0 pH further reduced total ammonia emissions by 80 to 87%.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to show their appreciation for the research project financing organization “Ministerium für Klimaschutz, Umwelt, Landwirtschaft, Natur- und Verbraucherschutz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen.” We thank also the experimental farm workers to give us the opportunity for achieving this study successfully.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agricultural Engineering Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, El-Gammaa Street, Giza, 12613, Egypt

    Ehab Mostafa

  2. Institute for Agricultural Engineering, Bonn University, Nussallee 5, 53115, Bonn, Germany

    Ehab Mostafa, Anne Selders & Wolfgang Buescher

  3. Agricultural & Biological Engineering, University of Illinois, 360C AESB, 1304 W. Pennsylvania Ave, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Richard S. Gates

Authors
  1. Ehab Mostafa
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  2. Anne Selders
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  4. Wolfgang Buescher
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Correspondence to Ehab Mostafa.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Mostafa, E., Selders, A., Gates, R.S. et al. Pig barns ammonia and greenhouse gas emission mitigation by slurry aeration and acid scrubber. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 9444–9453 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-07613-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-07613-x

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