Individual scrubber in fattening pig units: effects on odours and ammonia emissions

Poster. Gas scrubbing could be in the near future a good way to reduce ammonia and odour emissions by pig units. One limit of this treatment is the necessity of air centralization which is not always possible and may induce extra costs. An individual room per room scrubber could be an alternative. The objective of this study was to determine the efficiency of such a scrubber on odours and ammonia emitted by fattening pigs units. Gas scrubbing consists of solubilising gas pollutants in a liquid phase, which is water in the case of this study. The polluted air stream enters by the top and is diffused through a plastic filter material which is continuously humidified. The pollutants which are in contact with filter media are then transferred from the air to the liquid phase. Three measurement campaigns were achieved on one fattening room. The bubbling method was used for measuring ammonia concentrations before and after bioscrubbing. Olfactometric analyses were achieved for measuring odour concentration in accordance with European standard. Before and after air treatment, ventilation rate and temperature were recorded during each measurement campaign. Scrubbing efficiency rates ranged between 50 and 75 % for odour and around 30 % for ammonia. Efficiency would probably be improved by choosing another type of filter media resulting in an increasing contact surface between polluted air stream and water or by more frequent removal of the water used for scrubbing