Ammonia emissions from animal feeding operations (AFOs) have recently come
under increased scrutiny. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has come
under increased pressure from special interest groups to regulate ammonia. Regulation
of ammonia is very difficult because every facility has different manure management
practices. Different management practices lead to different emissions for every facility.
Researchers have been tasked by industry to find best management practices to reduce
emissions. The task cannot be completed without equipment that can efficiently and
accurately compare emissions. To complete this task, a measurement system was
developed and performance tested to measure ammonia. Performance tests included
uncertainty analysis, system response, and adsorption kinetics.
A measurement system was designed for measurement of gaseous emissions
from ground level area sources (GLAS) in order to sample multiple receptors with a
single sensor. This multiplexer may be used in both local and remote measurement
systems to increase the sampling rate of gaseous emissions. The increased data
collection capacity with the multiplexer allows for nearly three times as many samples to
be taken in the same amount of time while using the same protocol for sampling.
System response analysis was performed on an ammonia analyzer, a hydrogen
sulfide analyzer, and tubing used with flux chamber measurement. System responses
were measured and evaluated using transfer functions. The system responses for the
analyzers were found to be first order with delay in auto mode. The tubing response was
found to be a first order response with delay. Uncertainty analysis was performed on an ammonia sampling and analyzing
system. The system included an analyzer, mass flow controllers, calibration gases, and
analog outputs. The standard uncertainty was found to be 443 ppb when measuring a 16
ppm ammonia stream with a 20 ppm span.
A laboratory study dealing with the adsorption kinetics of ammonia on a flux
chamber was performed to determine if adsorption onto the chamber walls was
significant. The study found that the adsorption would not significantly change the
concentration of the output flow 30 minutes after a clean chamber was exposed to
ammonia concentrations for concentrations above 2.5 ppm.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/4951 |
| Date | 25 April 2007 |
| Creators | Boriack, Cale Nolan |
| Contributors | Lacey, Ronald E. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 765014 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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