RESEARCHERS WORK ON LOWERING GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS FROM POULTRY HOUSES

Also, if ammonia is emitted to the air from the poultry house, it is a precursor of fine particles and there are national Clean Air Act regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency that have strict guidelines for controlling emissions.

“We need to control the ammonia, not only for the animal health but also for the public health. That’s why I’m doing the research, to reduce the ammonia emissions and improve the animal health and the public air quality, especially for the rural areas, to make sure our agriculture is sustainable,” said Li.

Li said that there are several products on the market to control ammonia in poultry houses and alum is the preferred product for growers in Arkansas, where the study was conducted.

While adding alum to poultry litter is known to reduce ammonia concentration in poultry houses, its effects on greenhouse gas emissions had been unknown.

Li’s role in the study was on the engineering side and he helped Philip Moore, one of the authors of the paper and a pioneer researcher on alum in poultry production with the USDA, develop an automatic air sampling system to evaluate the emissions reduction by using alum in the broiler house.

The University of Delaware’s Hong Li, assistant professor in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences, is part of a team of researchers from USDA, the University of Tennessee and Oklahoma State University, working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions...