Emission of odorous compounds from intensive livestock production is a cause of nuisance in populated rural areas. Knowledge on the chemical composition of odor and temporal variations in emissions are needed in order to identify factors of importance for emission rates and select proper abatement technologies. In this work, a method based on proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) has been developed and tested for continuous measurements of odorant emissions from intensive pig production facilities. The method is assessed to cover all presently known important odorants from this type of animal production with adequate sensitivity and a time resolution of less than one minute. The sensitivity toward hydrogen sulfide is demonstrated to exhibit a pronounced humidity dependency, which can be included in the calibration procedure in order to achieve quantitative results for this compound. Application of the method at an experimental pig facility demonstrated strong temporal variations in emissions, including diurnal variation. Based on these first results, air exchange and animal activity are suggested to be of importance for emission rates of odorants. Highest emissions are seen for hydrogen sulfide and acetic acid, whereas key odorants are evaluated from tabulated odor threshold values to be hydrogen sulfide, methanethiol, 4-methylphenol, and butanoic acid.

Odor from pig production facilities is typically measured with olfactometry, whereby odor samples are collected in sampling bags and assessed by human panelists within 30 h. In the present study, the storage stability of odorants in two types of sampling bags that are often used for olfactometry was investigated. The bags were made of Tedlar or Nalophan. In a field experiment, humid and dried air samples were collected from a pig production facility with growing-finishing pigs and analyzed with a gas chromatograph with an amperometric sulfur detector at 4, 8, 12, 28, 52, and 76 h after sampling. In a laboratory experiment, the bags were filled with a humid gas mixture containing carboxylic acids, phenols, indoles, and sulfur compounds and analyzed with proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry after 0, 4, 8, 12, and 24 h. The results demonstrated that the concentrations of carboxylic acids, phenols, and indoles decreased by 50 to >99% during the 24 h of storage in Tedlar and Nalophan bags. The concentration of hydrogen sulfide decreased by approximately 30% during the 24 h of storage in Nalophan bags, whereas in Tedlar bags the concentration of sulfur compounds decreased by <5%. In conclusion, the concentrations of odorants in air samples from pig production facilities significantly decrease during storage in Tedlar and Nalophan bags, and the composition changes toward a higher relative presence of sulfur compounds. This can result in underestimation of odor emissions from pig production facilities and of the effect of odor reduction technologies.

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