Determination of ammonia emission factors for land application of poultry manure

• Main Author: Wong, Marco
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2011
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/32197

The purpose of this project was to monitor ammonia emissions and develop updated ammonia emission factors for land application of poultry manure under British Columbia conditions. Field experiments were performed at the Agassiz Research Station in 2005 and 2006, which involved four types of poultry manure as the fertilizer materials and four varying heights of the grass canopy. Proceeding manure application, ammonia emission rates were determined using wind tunnels, the emitted ammonia captured using acid traps and analyzed with a flow injection analyzer. For all trials, the highest emissions occurred within the first day, and gradually declined over the next 2-3 weeks. Cumulative ammonia emission in all treatments did not exceed the initial amount of ammonia-nitrogen present in manure. Ammonia emission rates were significantly different among the manure types (p < 0.005). The percent total loss of ammonia with time was positively correlated with manure pH. Ammonia emission rates were generally higher in both of the spring trials than the fall trial. The ammonia-nitrogen emission rate was found to decrease as the grass height increase. The proposed revised ammonia emission factors of 0.12 and 0.16 kg-NH3-N/initial kg-N for the two major types of poultry - broiler and layer are in line with current emission factors adopted by Environment Canada. However, current and revised emission factors (0.38 versus 0.11 kg-NH3-N/initial kg-N) were substantially different for turkey manure. === Applied Science, Faculty of === Chemical and Biological Engineering, Department of === Graduate