Ammonia Emissions from Cattle Slurry Case Study
Project: Assessment of ammonia emissions from cattle slurry stores
Client: ADAS Consulting Limited
The Challenge
Estimating the emissions of air pollutants from diffuse sources is often complicated by the presence of multiple sources and buildings.
Previous measurements of emissions from agricultural stores have been made in controlled conditions or for a limited number of sources that may not fully represent the range of current practice.
Estimates of emission rates were required throughout the year to enable the refinement of data in annual emission inventories.
Air concentrations were predicted using dispersion modelling software
The Solution
WSC developed a back-calculation technique to enable the dis-aggregation of emissions based on fitting field measurement data to the predictions of an atmospheric dispersion model.
Field experiments were conducted at four sites in collaboration with researchers at ADAS, IGER and SRI to collect air samples and meteorological data required for the back-estimation technique.
Field experiments were conducted to measure air concentrations and on-site meteorology
The Benefits
Data from the field experiments were used to determine emission rates and to evaluate the time variation in emissions. These data were able to be input into UK scale emission inventories to improve their prediction accuracy and help ensure that the UK meets it requirements under international legislation for the reduction of deposition rates to the environment.