Odour reducing microbial-mineral additive for poultry manure treatment

Poultry production systems are associated with emissions of odorous volatile organic compounds (VOCs), ammonia (NH3), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), greenhouse gases, and particulate matter. Development of mitigation technologies for these emissions is important. Previous laboratory-scale research on microbial-mineral treatment has shown to be effective for mitigation of NH3, H2S and amines emissions from poultry manure. The aim of this research was to assess the effectiveness of surface application of a microbial-mineral treatment for other important odorants, i.e., phenolics and sulfur-containing VOCs. Microbial-mineral litter additive consisting of 20% (w/w) of bacteria powder (six strains of heterotrophic bacteria) and 80% of mineral carrier (perlite-bentonite) was used at a dose of 500 g∙m-2 (per ~31 kg of manure). Samples of air were collected in two series, 4 and 7 days after application of additives. An odor profile of the poultry manure was determined using simultaneous chemical and sensory analysis. Reduction levels of VOCs determined on Day 4 was between 31% and 83% for mineral adsorbent treatment and in the range of 9% and 96% for microbial-mineral additive, depending on the analyzed compound. Reduction levels on Day 7 were considerably lower than on Day 4, suggesting that the odorous VOCs treatment efficacy is relatively short. There was no significant difference between treatments consisting of microbial-mineral additive and mineral carrier alone. Open image in new window