Seasonal variability of particulate matter and ammonia emissions in a laying hen house in Korea

This study was conducted to measure the seasonal concentrations of particulate matter (PM) and ammonia (NH₃) emissions in laying hens performed according to the Verification of Environmental Technologies for Agricultural Production (VERA) Test Protocol and to calculate corresponding emission factors. During the winter and summer, the concentration of emitted PM₁₀ was high at 391.6 μg/m³ and low at 223.7 μg/m³, respectively, whereas that of PM_2.5 was high at 50.4 μg/m³ and 62.8 μg/m³ in the winter and spring, respectively. Furthermore, the concentration of emitted NH₃ was high at 9.33 and 8.37 ppm during winter and spring, respectively. The annual average emission concentrations for PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 were 323.5 and 49.6 5 μg/m³, respectively, whereas that for NH₃ was 5.75 ppm. The emission factors of PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 were highest in summer and lowest in winter; and those in fall were higher than those in spring. Similarly, the highest and lowest NH₃ emission factor values were recorded in the summer and winter, respectively. The annual emission factors of PM₁₀, PM_2.5, and NH₃ were 0.027, 0.0045, and 0.383 kg/head/year, respectively. Our finding in this study highlight the importance of monitoring for the effective management of PM and NH₃ emissions that occur over short time periods and indicate that the ventilation volume should also be considered on a seasonal basis.