Evaluation of Electrostatic Particle Ionization and BioCurtain™ Technologies to Reduce Air Pollutants from Broiler Houses

The continuing growth of poultry production, along with the increasing urbanization of rural areas, is leading to more odor-related complaints from neighboring communities and more scrutiny from policy makers. It is, therefore, in the best interest of poultry producers to look at control methods for abating odors. Previous studies have shown that substantial amounts of volatile and odorous compounds are adsorbed and transported by dust particles. Thus, by reducing the amount of dust emitted from poultry facilities such as broiler houses, odor may be reduced as well. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of two commercially available control technologies (BioCurtain™ and electrostatic particle ionization (EPI) system) in reducing the total suspended particulate matter (TSP), particulate matter <10 µm in diameter (PM₁₀), ammonia (NH₃), and hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) emitted from a broiler facility in Texas. The study was conducted at a broiler production facility in two identically designed, ventilated, and managed broiler houses where one served as the treatment house and the other, the control. Measurements were done on two consecutive days each in September and December 2010. BioCurtain™ was tested independently on the first day and in combination with and the EPI on the second day. Reductions in the NH₃ and H₂S emission rates by as much as 8% (1040 vs. 943 g/h for NH₃ and 9.2 vs. 8.4 g/h for H₂S) and by as much as 43% (396 vs. 227 g/h) for the TSP emission rates were achieved with the BioCurtain™. The EPI system reduced the NH₃, H₂S, and TSP emission rates by as much as 17%, 34% and 39%, respectively. Economic analysis showed that operating the automated EPI and BioCurtain™ system for one 14 m wide and 152 m long broiler building housing an average of 23,000 birds will cost $0.06 per bird.