Comparaison de méthodes pour une mesure rapide de la concentration en ammoniac en porcherie d’engraissement

Poster présenté aux 56es JRP.

Mieux connaitre les concentrations en ammoniac au niveau des bâtiments d’élevage est une étape importante et nécessaire dans l’atteinte des objectifs nationaux de réduction des émissions. Du fait du nombre important d’élevages mais aussi de leurs diversités techniques, il est nécessaire d’utiliser des méthodologies de mesures robustes mais aussi facilement déployables en conditions d’élevage pour acquérir les données nécessaires. L’objectif de cette étude est de comparer les valeurs de concentrations en ammoniac mesurées dans une porcherie d’engraissement à l’aide de trois équipements différents susceptibles d’être utilisés en conditions terrain.

Comparison of three methods for rapid measurement of ammonia concentration in pig-fattening housing

The ability of France to meet its European Union commitments to decreasing ammonia emissions requires better knowledge of concentrations in all sectors, including the pig sector. Thus, measuring equipment should provide reliable data and be easily used on farms. The aim of this study was to compare three types of measuring equipment used in a fattening room of Ifip’s experimental farm. The room housed 54 pigs that weighed ca. 50 kg each, were kept on a fully slatted floor and had their slurry stored in a pit below the floor. The three types of equipment were an infrared photoacoustic analyser (Innova 1512, Lumasens Technologies, Denmark) that continuously measures ammonia, N2O, CH4 and CO2; an opto-electronic nose (NeOse Advance, Aryballe, France) with a silicon-based optical sensor; and an ultraviolet (UV) spectrophotometer (G800, Hemera, France) that uses the spectral signature of ammonia. Each type of equipment was placed in the middle of a pen at ca. 1.8 m high and operated for 20 hours. The mean concentration of ammonia measured by the infrared photoacoustic analyser was 3.0 ± 0.6 ppm, which agreed with that observed previously under the same conditions and in the literature. The mean concentration measured by the opto-electronic “nose” and the UV spectrophotometer differed little: 2.5 ± 0 and 2.4 ± 0.8 ppm, respectively. These two types of equipment appeared more adaptable to measurements under commercial conditions than the gas analyser currently used for research on gaseous emissions from pig production.