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The Effect of Biofuel Production on Swine Farm Methane and Ammonia Emissions
Author(s) -
Harper Lowry A.,
Flesch Thomas K.,
Weaver Kim H.,
Wilson John D.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of environmental quality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.888
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1537-2537
pISSN - 0047-2425
DOI - 10.2134/jeq2010.0172
Subject(s) - biofuel , methanogenesis , manure , environmental science , methane , greenhouse gas , manure management , bioenergy , biogas , anaerobic digestion , ammonia , waste management , organic matter , environmental engineering , chemistry , pulp and paper industry , agronomy , ecology , engineering , organic chemistry , biology
Methane (CH 4 ) and ammonia (NH 3 ) are emitted to the atmosphere during anaerobic processing of organic matter, and both gases have detrimental environmental effects. Methane conversion to biofuel production has been suggested to reduce CH 4 emissions from animal manure processing systems. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the change in CH 4 and NH 3 emissions in an animal feeding operation due to biofuel production from the animal manure. Gas emissions were measured from swine farms differing only in their manure‐management treatment systems (conventional vs. biofuel). By removing organic matter (i.e., carbon) from the biofuel farms' manure‐processing lagoons, average annual CH 4 emissions were decreased by 47% compared with the conventional farm. This represents a net 44% decrease in global warming potential (CO 2 equivalent) by gases emitted from the biofuel farms compared with conventional farms. However, because of the reduction of methanogenesis and its reduced effect on the chemical conversion of ammonium (NH 4 + ) to dinitrogen (N 2 ) gas, NH 3 emissions in the biofuel farms increased by 46% over the conventional farms. These studies show that what is considered an environmentally friendly technology had mixed results and that all components of a system should be studied when making changes to existing systems.