ECN publication
Title:
Measurement of the decrease of ammonia emission by manure injection relative to surface application: a field test at Zegveld
 
Author(s):
 
Published by: Publication date:
ECN 1-12-1998
 
ECN report number: Document type:
ECN-R--98-026 Other
 
Number of pages: Full text:
27 Download PDF  

Abstract:
In order to study the effectiveness of manure injection, an experimentwas conducted by IMAG-DLO, TNO-MEP and ECN at the experimental agricultural farm at Zegveld. The aim of the experiments was to compare the different techniques to determine the emission rates of ammonia and to evaluate the emission reduction efficiency of the injector. On two plots located close to each other, the same amount of manure with the same composition was applied with different techniques. On the first plot the manure was applied with the conventional surface technique, while on the second plot the manure was injected into the soil. The emissions from the two plots were determined with three different techniques: the mass balance technique (IMAG-DLO), plume measurements on fixed locations using a tracer (TNO-MEP) and plume measurements using a fast mobile ammonia sensor (ECN). In this report the results of the ECN method are described in detail and the results of the three methods are compared. The decrease in emission as the result of injection of manure during the first day was 70% compared to the conventional surface application method. After the first day the background concentration was so high that the emissions of the two plots could not be measured anymore. From the three methods to measure the emission, the method of IMAG-DLO and ECN compared reasonably well, although for the plot where the manure was injected, a systematic difference was found, probably as the result of the high background concentrations. The method of TNO-MEP yielded systematically too low emissions, probably as the result of problems with the ammonia concentration measurement technique which was used. The plume measurements have been shown to be a valuable method to determine the emissions from fields where manure is applied. The cross section of a plume downwind of a source provides a good estimate of the emission, provided accurate meteorological measurements are available, the site is well characterised and an accurate model is available. 4 refs.


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