ASABE Technical Library - Abstract
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Ammonia Emissions from a Commercial Broiler House
Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org
Citation: Paper number 024118, 2002 ASAE Annual Meeting . (doi: 10.13031/2013.10495) @2002Authors: John W Worley, Michael Czarick, Anna M Cathey
Keywords: Ammonia, Emissions, Poultry Housing, air quality
Emission of ammonia gas from broiler houses has become an issue of concern. Yet most
of the research that has been done on ammonia in poultry houses is more concerned with in-house
air quality than with emissions, and most of the research has occurred in northern Europe where
climatic conditions and perhaps management are different from that in the southeastern United
States which is the area that produces the largest amount of poultry in the US.
This research monitored ventilation rates and ammonia levels in a commercial broiler house in the
southeastern United States to determine the approximate emission rates under hot and cool climatic
conditions. In hot conditions, although ammonia concentrations were only in the 3 to 5 ppm range,
extremely high ventilation rates resulted in estimated emissions of approximately 35 lb (16 kg)
/day/house on some days. The instrument used to measure ammonia levels was not reliably
accurate at concentrations below 5 ppm, however, and an error of 1 ppm at these high ventilation
rates would result in an error of 20 lb (9 kg)/day/house. In cooler conditions, ammonia
concentrations were higher, and ventilation rates were lower resulting in daily emissions similar to
summer conditions. However, when the sensor was exposed to constant high levels of ammonia,
the output became unstable, rendering these results questionable as well.