Heat Flux Measurements and Modeling of Malodorous Compounds above an Anaerobic Swine Lagoon

Abstract

The concentration of p-cresol and p-ethylphenol, two malodorants typical of swine waste, were measured at 0.5 and 1.5 m above a waste treatment lagoon during two separate campaigns encompassing late winter through early spring and late spring through early summer. Concomitant collection of air temperatures, humidities, insolation, and wind speeds, as well as water column temperatures were done so that heat fluxes could be computed using an energy budget method and Bowen ratio estimates. The empirical model that was found to correlate best with variations in malodorant concentrations and gradients above the lagoon had the terms describing evaporation from the lagoon surface and net available energy at the lagoon surface. Emissions were found to be much higher during the cool season than the warm season. This was despite much higher evaporation rates during the warm season. This could be explained by much lower lagoon concentrations of the malodorants in the warm season than in the cool season. Results of this work are being used to determine appropriate models to estimate malodorant emissions from lagoons and devise techniques for the abatement of nuisance emissions.

Temporal flux and spatial dynamics of nutrients, fecal indicators, and zoonotic pathogens in anaerobic swine manure lagoon water

“…Although seasonal temperature ranges may differ from those reported for lagoons in other regions of the USA, the seasonal pattern reported in the present study is similar to those reported for swine lagoons in Iowa (Merrill and Halverson, 2002), Kansas (DeSutter and Ham, 2005), Kentucky (Cook et al, 2010), and North Carolina (Vanotti and Szogi, 2008). Correlations between air and lagoon temperatures and emissions of ammonia, greenhouse gasses, and malodorants have been widely studied, and it is generally agreed that lagoon water temperature is a significant factor in volatilization processes (Harper et al, 2000;DeSutter and Ham, 2005;Aneja et al, 2008;Blunden and Aneja, 2008;Blanes-Vidal et al, 2010;Loughrin et al, 2011). Correlations observed in the present study are described in 3.2.2., 3.2.3., 3.2.5., and 3.3.1.…”

Estimating Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Waste Lagoon

“…In this research effort we used the Stannard (1997) criteria. These criteria were also successfully applied by the authors for similar studies (Loughrin et al, 2011(Loughrin et al, , 2012Quintanar et al, 2009).…”

“…The Penman method (1948) is one of the most reliable, stable, and costeffective approach to estimate latent energy flux or evaporation from variety of surfaces. This has led to widespread adoption of original or slightly modified version of this method for various applications that require evaporation estimation (e. g., Krishnan and Kushwaha, 1971;Shnitnikov, 1974;Doorenbos and Pruitt, 1977;Cohen et al, 2002;Mahmood and Hubbard, 2002, 2005Wohlfahrt et al, 2009;Quintanar et al, 2009;Loughrin et al, 2011Loughrin et al, , 2012.…”

“…This research is part of a larger effort where the authors are trying to identify the relationships between meteorological variables and GHG emissions from waste lagoons and develop cost-effective approaches to estimate these emissions. Quintanar et al (2009) and Loughrin et al (2011) previously successfully estimated energy fluxes from a waste lagoon using Penman (1948) method. The present study follows these works using methodologies from Quintanar et al (2009) and Loughrin et al (2011) for energy flux estimates.…”

“…Quintanar et al (2009) and Loughrin et al (2011) previously successfully estimated energy fluxes from a waste lagoon using Penman (1948) method. The present study follows these works using methodologies from Quintanar et al (2009) and Loughrin et al (2011) for energy flux estimates. The energy flux estimation method of the latter is an update of the former.…”