Hydrogen sulfide emissions from cattle manure: experimental study
Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution ‘Federal Scientific Agroengineering Center VIM’, Filtrovskoje shosse, 3 p.o. Tiarlevo, Saint Petersburg, RU196625, Russia
*Correspondence: vvtoryj@yandex.ru
Abstract:
Animal waste products, manure, in particular, are the sources of gases harmful to human and animal health. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which is produced from the breakdown of organic matter in animal faeces, is one of them. Its concentration in the cow barn air should not exceed 5 mg m−3. A special laboratory setup was designed and the level of hydrogen sulfide emissions from the cow manure was determined depending on the time and manure temperature and moisture content. The most intensive emission of hydrogen sulfide from manure was in the first 24 hours – the increment of H2S concentration was 0.168 mg m−3 per hour average. During the next 24 hours, it was 0.021 mg m−3 per hour. When the manure temperature increased, H2S concentration increased also; when the temperature manure decreased, H2S concentration decreased also. In 48 hours, the hydrogen sulfide concentration was 1.1 mg m−3 at the manure temperature of +3.0 °C. At the manure temperature of +23.4 °C and 21.3 °C, H2S concentration was 6.53 mg m−3 and 4.97 mg m−3, respectively. The higher was the manure moisture content, the lower was the emission of hydrogen sulfide into the environment. After 24 hours under the manure moisture content of 88.5% and 92.5% and its temperature of 21 °С ± 0.3 °С, the difference in the hydrogen sulfide concentration was 1.18 times depending on the manure moisture content. The selected regression equations described the dependence of the hydrogen sulfide concentration on the considered factors. The determination coefficients and Student’s criteria proved the reliability of the results obtained at the significance level P ≤ 0.05.
Key words:
cattle, emission, farm, hydrogen sulphide, manure