Abatement of Ammonia Emissions from Swine Lagoons Using Polymer‐enhanced Solid‐liquid Separation

A study was conducted to determine the effects of solid‐liquid separation of liquid swine manure on ammonia emissions from lagoons. This determination was done at full‐scale in two contiguous swine production units that had similar animal production management. One of these units was maintained as a control using the anaerobic lagoon treatment method. In the second production unit, solids were removed from liquid manure using an enhanced‐polymer solid‐liquid separation treatment prior to lagoon storage. The ammonia gas fluxes from both lagoons were measured simultaneously during a 10‐month period (Feb.‐Nov., 2004) using passive flux samplers. On average, the solid‐liquid separation treatment separated 85% of total suspended solids (TSS), 60% of total solids (TS), 73% of chemical oxygen demand (COD), 81% of organic N, and 8% of total ammoniacal N (TAN) from the liquid entering the lagoon. Ammonia emissions from the anaerobic lagoon control totaled 12,542 kg N/yr (13,633 kg N/ha/yr). This compares to lower ammonia emissions of 3,426 kg N/yr (or 3,684 kg N/ha/yr) from the anaerobic lagoon treated with solid‐liquid separation. Although water quality changes were modest in the treated lagoon with respect to the control, total annual NH3 emissions abatement in the lagoon with solid‐liquid separation was 73% with respect to the anaerobic lagoon control. These results overall demonstrate that solid‐liquid separation technologies can substantially reduce ammonia emissions from anaerobic swine lagoons.