Evaluation of gas emissions from animal building dusts using a cylindrical convective chamber

A cylindrical convective chamber was developed to monitor gas emissions from dusts. To extract ammonia and odorous gases adsorbed by the dust in the chamber, a low-temperature thermal desorption technique was applied. The empirical thermal desorption coefficients and densities of animal building dust were investigated. A chemiluminescence ammonia analyser and an ACSCENT international olfactometer were used for the ammonia and odour detection threshold analysis. The core objective of this research was to determine the magnitude of ammonia and odour emissions from animal building dust. The ammonia emissions from the dust samples varied depending on animal types and the dust sampling time. Dust from pig buildings was sampled solely for odour measurement. The average odour detection threshold and the emission rates of dust from pig buildings were 238±62 OU m−3 and 1.43±0.37 OU (min g dust)−1, respectively. The odour data were processed by using SAS to examine any variations among the pig building types.