Seasonal Variability of Particulate Matter and Ammonia Emissions in a Laying Hen House in Korea

This study was conducted to measure the seasonal concentrations of particulate matter (PM) and ammonia (NH₃) emissions in laying hens performed according to the VERA Test Protocol and to calculate corresponding emission factors. During the winter and summer, the concentration of emitted PM₁₀ was high at 391.6 μg/m³ and low at 223.7 μg/m³, respectively, whereas that of PM_2.5was high at 50.4 μg/m³ and 62.8 μg/m³ in the winter and spring, respectively. Furthermore, the concentration of emitted NH₃ was high at 9.33 and 8.37 ppm during winter and spring, respectively. The annual average emission concentrations for PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 were 323.5 and 49.6 5 μg/m³, respectively, whereas that for NH₃ was 5.75 ppm. The emission factors of PM₁₀ and PM_2.5were highest in summer and lowest in winter; and those in fall were higher than those in spring. Similarly, the highest and lowest NH₃ emission factor values were recorded in the summer and winter, respectively. The annual emission factors of PM₁₀, PM_2.5, and NH₃ were 0.027, 0.0045, and 0.383 kg/head/year, respectively. Our finding in this study highlight the importance of monitoring for the effective management of PM and NH₃ emissions that occur over short time periods and indicate that the ventilation volume should also be considered on a seasonal basis.