Reduction of Ammonia Emissions from Treated Anaerobic Swine Lagoons

There is a need for treatment technologies that can effectively address environmental concerns associated with anaerobic lagoons typically used to manage manure. These technologies must be able to capture nutrients, kill pathogens, and reduce emissions of ammonia (NH ) and nuisance odors. To meet these needs, a wastewater treatment plant was demonstrated at full-scale in one of two 4,360-pig production units in a finishing farm in Duplin Co., NC. The second production unit was used as a control. Both production units had similar animal production management and lagoons with similar surface area (about 0.9 ha each). The treatment plant processed raw manure and the corresponding lagoon was used to store the treated water. The quality of the lagoon liquid was rapidly improved as clean effluent replaced dirty liquid. Our objective was to study changes in NH emissions as a result of improved water quality. The study was done one year after lagoon conversion and included cold and warm weather conditions. Passive flux samplers were used to measure simultaneously the NH gas fluxes from both the treated and traditional anaerobic lagoons. Average total NH -N (TAN) concentrations in lagoon liquid were 31 and 388 mg/L in the treated and traditional systems, respectively. 3