Farmscape for March 8, 2013

Research conducted on behalf of Swine Innovation Porc has shown an air cleaning system developed for swine barns to be effective in removing a range of contaminants.
As part of research conducted on behalf of Swine Innovation Porc scientists examined the effectiveness of an innovative air cleaning system for swine barns developed by the Research and Development Institute for the Agri-Environment.
Dr. Matthieu Girard, a research scientist in air quality engineering with the Research and Development Institute, says researchers focused on odorous compounds, ammonia, dust and bioaerosols, any bacteria or virus capable of spreading disease.

Clip-Dr. Matthieu Girard-Research and Development Institute for the Agri-Environment:
The system is based on a biological treatment system which is called a biotrickling filter.
In this machine we have a filter bed which is made up of plastic material.
The air is passed through this filter bed which is continuously wetted by a nutrient solution.
The main treatment system that is applied in this unit is microorganisms.
Bacteria basically that are available in the air or anywhere else will grow on the filter bed and it's these microorganisms that will actually transform the pollutants into non toxic and odor less compounds.
Between the lab scale and the commercial scale tests we were able to remove around 75 percent of the ammonia emitted from the swine buildings.
For odors the results were a little variable but we got removal efficiencies up to 80 percent but, depending on the time and depending on the quantity of odors, we had variable results.
We also had a small removal of viruses, up to 35 percent.

Dr. Girard says further refinements are needed to improve the effectiveness of the system but he's hopeful it will be ready for commercialization within the next few years.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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