Iowa State University researchers are collaborating on a study in Kentucky that could have an important impact on air quality standards for livestock operations.
Robert Burns is associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering at I-S-U and says the study involves monitoring the air in chicken broiler houses. Burns says they’re measuring some specific emissions. He says they’re monitoring ammonia emissions, hydrogen sulfide, non-methane hydrocarbons and three different sizes of dust.
Burns says this study will eventually help the E-P-A figure out ways to deal with emissions. He says the E-P-A will use this data as a baseline to determine the magnitude of the emissions. He says this study won’t look for ways to reduce the emissions, but that’s the long-term goal. Burns says the I-S-U work is based on monitoring the exhaust fans that push the air out of the chicken houses. He says broiler houses are one of the more challenging to monitor because they can have very short cycles when the fans run.
Burns says they have a high-tech system to monitor the chicken houses in Kentucky from the Ames campus. He says the facilities are at two different locations and they monitor them through and Internet link and design and acquisition system that they designed. Burns says the Kentucky project is the first and will lead into projects to gather emissions data from hog farms and manure storage facilities, poultry houses and dairy facilities across the country. He says they’ll collect date for one year and then report to the E-P-A.