Two airspace building design to reduce odour and gas emissions from pig farms

By keeping manure storage into the building and creating two independent airspaces within a room (main airspace and an enclosed dunging area [EDA]), it is suggested that the building air quality would be improved. Furthermore the building total emissions would be reduced if the air coming out of the EDA is treated with a biofilter. In-barn trials were completed using 12 experimental pens to determine the EDA usage by the pigs for different configurations. It was concluded that a 0.4 m wide entrance was adequate to allow free movement into and out of the EDA. The use of intermittent water spraying and continuous lighting inside the EDA effectively precluded its use as a lying area. A laboratory study was completed to evaluate the interaction between EDA air extraction rate, door design and contaminant containment. The curtain door at 20 Us extraction rate was selected as being the most promising design. For the second part of the study, the best EDA configuration is being implemented in full-scale grower-finisher rooms and compared to conventional rooms for odour and gas emissions.