Direct measurements of the ozone formation potential from dairy cattle emissions using a transportable smog chamber

Tropospheric ozone continues to be an air pollution problem in the United States, particularly in California, Texas, and across the eastern seaboard. The obvious sources of ozone precursors have been largely controlled over the past several decades, leading to the critical examination of secondary sources. In particular, California has new air quality rules addressing agricultural sources of ozone precursors, including dairy farms. Some recent estimates predict that dairy cattle are second only to on-road vehicles as a leading source of ozone precursor emissions in California's San Joaquin Valley. The objective of this work was to directly measure the ozone formation potential from dairy housing. A transportable “smog” chamber was constructed and validated using organic gases known to be present in dairy emissions. The ozone formation potential of emissions from eight non-lactating dairy cows and their fresh waste was then directly evaluated in the field at a completely enclosed cow corral on the campus of the University of California, Davis. The results demonstrate that the majority of the ozone formation is explained by ethanol (EtOH) in the emissions from the dairy cows, not by acetone as previously thought. Ozone formation potential is generally small, with <20 ppb of ozone produced under typical conditions when EtOH concentrations were ∼200 ppb and NOx concentrations were ∼50 ppb. The results match our current understanding of atmospheric ozone formation potential, ruling out the possibility of unknown organic compounds in dairy emissions with significant ozone formation potential. Simulations carried out with a modified form of the Caltech Atmospheric Chemistry Mechanism verify that actual ozone formation from dairy emissions is much lower than what would be predicted using the current regulatory profiles. Based on these results, the ozone formation potential of emissions from dairy cattle in California seems to be lower than previously estimated.