Biological Systems Engineering, Department of

 

First Advisor

Yijie Xiong

Date of this Version

12-2023

Document Type

Article

Citation

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Graduate College at the University of Nebraska in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science

Major: Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering

Under the supervision of Professor Yijie Xiong

Lincoln, Nebraska, December 2023

Comments

Copyright 2023, Joshua Dotto

Abstract

The emissions of ammonia (NH3), particulate matter (PM2.5), and carbon dioxide (CO2) are major concerns in poultry facilities. They can pose environmental concerns and nuances. Robust and affordable measurement systems are needed to accurately measure in-barn concentrations and quantify the emissions.

The Intelligent Portable Monitoring Unit (iPMU or PMU3) developed in 2016 was reconstructed into PMU4 to include upgraded NH3 and PM2.5 sensors and wireless connectivity for a low-cost, robust, and accurate air quality monitoring device with contactless data transfer using the concept of Internet of Things (IoT). In addition, a user-friendly web-based interface was developed for 1) real-time and historical data visualization, and 2) estimation of NH3 and PM2.5 emissions with suitable ventilation measurement.

The PMU4 device developed in this project features back-up data stores and leverages cloud computing for data analysis and visualization. It was designed to collect and store sensor data (temperature, relative humidity, NH3, PM2.5, and CO2) on an SD card, and simultaneously send the data to a secure server. The PMU4 device uses Wi-Fi for internet access, but it was programmed to tolerate internet outages by queueing data and automatically transmitting the data queue to the secure server when the internet restores.

The PMU4 device was deployed in the Robert T. Hamilton Poultry Teaching & Research Facility (Iowa State University, Ames, IA) for 13 days (September 15 – September 27, 2023) for field evaluation. The results showed that the mean temperature and relative humidity were 23.2 ± 1.8 ˚C and 62.1 ± 11.8% respectively. The mean concentrations of NH3, PM2.5, and CO2 were 0.47 ± 0.27 ppm, 12.0 ± 12.6 µg/m3, and 581.3 ± 134.2 ppm. The NH3 and PM2.5 per bird emission rates for the monitoring period were estimated using facility temperature, NH3 and PM2.5 concentrations, atmospheric barometric pressure obtained from the nearest airport, and ventilation and chicken inventory obtained from the facility manger. The mean per bird emission rates for NH3 and PM2.5 were 0.23 g/d/hen and 7.44 mg/d/hen, respectively.

Advisor: Yijie Xiong

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