METHOD AND AGGREGATE FOR CLEANING OF ROOM AIR, PARTICULARLY IN LIVESTOCK BUILDINGS

Abstract: A "pad" of the type based on corrugated paper, which is known for the moisturising and cooling of intake air for livestock buildings, is found to be particularly applicable as an effective air cleaner when it is arranged in connection with a collection tank for water with a content of bacteria for decomposition of dust and ammonia, in that the tank water is circulated by a pump down through the pad during circulation of the room air transversely through the pad. With the invention, obnoxious odours e.g. from pigsties can be eliminated in a simple and inexpensive manner.

Description: Method and aggregate for cleaning of room air, particularly in livestock buildings . Within agriculture, animals convert food to meat, milk and eggs. This conversion also gives rise to some elements which are undesirable. Among other things, these are: 1. Dust 2. Odour 3. Ammonia In many cases the animals are housed in livestock buildings, and the concentration of the above-mentioned undesirable elements becomes high. Since the animals also give off heat and must have oxygen, it is necessary for the buildings to be ventilated, whereby the undesired elements are trans- ferred to the outdoor surroundings where they can be a problem in that: 1. Dust is a carrier of odour, virus and bacteria. 2. The odour is unpleasant for neighbours who can not dry clothing outdoors. 3. Ammonia is harmful for certain biotopes, which change due to the extra supply of N, and also influences local and remote water environments. Therefore, it will be necessary for these undesired elements to be removed completely or partly from the air in the building. Since what is involved is large amounts of air and small concentrations, the traditional methods are too expensive in both acquirement and operation. The traditional methods are: Filters Filters retain dust and herewith some of the odour, but on the other hand ammonia is not retained. However, the large amounts of dust require frequent replacement of the filters. A porker requires an average of 50 m3/h of air with a concentration of 3 mg/m3. This is 150 mg per hour. Since the build- ing are in use 24 hours a day throughout the whole year, there is 1.3 kg dust per sty per year. The pressure loss across the filter is also somewhat greater than the total system pressure of 10-40 Pa. This will considerably increase the electricity consumption. Chemical cleaning Ammonia is a base .and it can be collected in a weak acid. By letting the air pass a surface with low pH, the ammonia will be collected and the acid is gradually neutralised. Therefore, acid must constantly be added. Some of the dust will also be collected, and this will demand regular cleaning and give rise to the problem of its disposal. Use can also be made of clean water, since ammonia binds closely with water. But as the concentrations in the air are low, 5- 20 ppm, the balance between ammonia in the air and ammonia dissolved in the water (NH + ) means that only a small amount of ammonia will be bound in the water.. Bio-scrubbers Here, drops of water are sprayed into the air, whereby the dust coagulates and falls down. The dust can be removed as sludge. The blowing out of the small drops into the air gives rise to a high consumption of water. Moreover, the con- sumption of energy for atomising of the water is also a factor. The reuse of the water is difficult since it easily blocks the nozzles. Bio-filters (biobed) Here, there is built up a 10-30 cm thick mat of wood chips, earth, peat and the like. The building air is pressed through, and the dust is retained due to the filter effect. If the mat can be held sufficiently moist, bacteria will decompose the dust so that only an ash part remains (primarily potassium and phosphor) . If the mat is held moist, the ammo- nia is partly retained. The ammonia is converted to nitrate and free nitrogen. The odour is reduced if the mat is held sufficiently moist, in that bacteria are formed which convert the odour gases/ However, it is difficult to hold the mat uniformly moist, and the accumulation of nitrate, phosphor and potassium means that the filter must be changed regularly. Due to the large content of nutrients, it must be handled as firm farmyard manure. 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" rt --- ^ Φ rt O P- o • H α Φ Ω 3 rt 3 TJ . — . o P- • rt tr P- Φ O H 1 SD l-S P- ^ φ 3 iQ -> ■ <: P- CQ s: o ED Ω — • l-S iQ • — 3 TJ sQ 3 SD S O Φ Ω (fe. 3 O rt 3" o tr Hi P- 3 ι-3 -— -- CO -v • Φ Ω o --3 Φ Ω P- tr 3 rt CQ CO Ω o SD Hi tr P- P- Hi SD H l-S 3" CTi 3 H" rt P- Φ Hi " SD O rt Φ Φ Φ 3 O rt φ 3 Ω < O φ ----- Φ — rt φ H SD 3' co H O 3 Hi P- TJ 3 P- SD Φ > H tr Φ 3 Ω 00 tr to tr • Φ rt P- Hi s: O CO 3 TJ TJ SD 3 l-S -Q Φ rt • rt — tr 3 O P- Φ H SD SD M * tr rt 3 3 Φ SD Hi H 1 O 3 P- l-S Hi tr - 1 Cπ SD rt P- l- 1 -S CO ω i-s - rt P- TJ H P- φ tr SD s; ft P- φ to Φ SD P- O Φ P- * o o tr tr -S 3 s H Ω Φ rt H 3 φ rt NJ H Ω l-S Φ 3 TJ Φ 3 [D Ω P- tr PJ P- ------ P- rt φ Φ 3 " 3 tr 3 H CO φ Φ o CO 3 Φ CO \ H 3 ! Ω Φ O ω CO rt tr SD iQ CO SD SD SD Φ rt 3 l-S o H to Φ . — . α tr Φ — tr Φ 3 1 tr o Q- rt 3 rt -Q -- ■ rt tr o Hi σ I • to o P- 3 1 rt φ 3 Φ 3 ■ Φ P- O O Φ 1 r ω P- SD t ΪD 1 1 1 O Hi H ω 1 CO 1 converted to (0.05/1.5) 1-7 x 12/100mm = 0.37 Pa/m. This is thus 100 times less than earlier biobeds, which in practice means that work can be effected with very thick biobeds, which can thus have a correspondingly smaller surface. This naturally provides savings in the housing around the biobed. Alternatively, considerable savings can be achieved in the consumption of electricity for the ventilators. Due to the construction of the pad, it can be held wet by adding a large amount of water to the top, after which the water distributes itself without dripping at the edges and at the same time the dust is washed out. Consequently, it is not necessary to have a nozzle arrangement prior to the biobed for the removal of the dust. The large amount of water applied to the top means that work can be effected with a water pressure slightly above the lifting height for the water. This means that use can be made of much larger holes in a distributor pipe instead of small holes in the nozzles. It is thus not necessary to have several tanks for the cleaning of the water, a coarse sieve is sufficient. A biobed is built up of impregnated cellulose and is thus not decomposed by the bacteria. Therefore, it will have a lifetime of 10 years or longer. On the surface of the pad there is formed a film of ammo- >nium oxidising bacteria which converts the dissolved ammonia to nitrite. At the same time, only a minor part of the removed N is found again in the sump, and neither NOx' s nor N 2 0 are formed. This is due to a special characteristic of the pad, in that its large and homogenous surface allows anaerobic, bacteria to sit between the aerobic bacteria on the sur- face of the pad. These bacteria quickly de-nitrify the formed nitrite to fee nitrogen N 2 which can pass through the outer bacterial film without any reaction and which in turn does not apply any load on the surroundings. The advantages of the cooling pad compared to patent pub- lication DE 44 16687 Al can therefore be listed as follows: For the same contact with the air, the pressure loss is a hundredth part. The pad can tolerate a large amount of water applied to the top, whereby it can wash out the dust. Consequently, nozzles can be dispensed with. The pad does not require nozzles but water on the top, which means that there is no need for a tank for clarification of the water. The pad is impregnated, whereby it is not converted by the bacteria. The pad provides the possibility for co-existence of both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. General conditions for effective air cleaning 1. The air must closely .pass a large surface with bacteria which can collect the odour gases. 2. The air must closely pass a wet surface so that the • dust can be bound. 3. The media must be so open that it is not closed by the dust. 4. The air must closely pass a wet surface with water which is not in equilibrium with ammonia- in gas form. 5. The dust must be able to be removed in a continuous manner. 6. The dust must be converted to inorganic salts (nitrite, nitrate, phosphor and potassium) by the bacteria. 7. The collected ammonia must be converted to nitrite and nitrate by means of bacteria, for which purpose plenty of oxygen is required. 8. The removal of nitrate, phosphor and potassium must be able to be effected without the process being stopped. 9. The pressure loss must be small compared with the pressure of the building. The above-mentioned points are fulfilled by a cooling pad where, in addition to the already-mentioned points, the following conditions exit: 1. It has a very large wet surface, 130 m2 per m3. 2. It is permeated by water so that collected dust can be washed out. 3. It is porous, so that bacteria can adhere firmly. The odour gases can hereby be absorbed by the bacteria. 4. It effectively oxidises the water. 5. It can directly reuse the water, since nozzles are not required. The invention is illustrated in more detail in the drawing, where figure 1 shows a cooling pad mounted in a steel frame, where the distribution of water takes place at the top and there is a discharge channel in the bottom of the frame, fig. 2 is a schematic side view of an aggregate according to the invention, and fig. 3 illustrates the construction of a reactor element used in the pad. Use is made of a tank of 0.02 to 0.1 litres per m 3 /air/hour for housing the necessary number of bacteria for conversion of the dust and the ammonia. A pump brings the water to the top of the pad, after which the water runs through the pad, carrying ammonia and dust with it. The bacteria will also adhere to the dust particles which are- suspended in the water due to the stirring by the pump. For a pigsty for 300 porkers,- in North Europe 300 x 75 = 22500 m3/h is required. The tank can then be of 450 tO 2250 litres. If the tank is continuously emptied, the smallest tank can be used. If the tank is emptied at intervals, the largest tank must be used. When the pad is used for the reduction of dust and ammonia, the dimensions must be such that retention times in the pad are from 0.1 to 0.3- seconds. With moderate concentrations of N in the water, this will be able to reduce the ammonia discharge by 50-70%. The inconveniences of odour are especially great in connection with pig production. Therefore, when this is situated close to housing areas, it will be desirable to be to reduce the emission of air to the surroundings. The concentration of odour in the air in the sty is relatively low, and for this reason use must be made of long contact time before the odour molecules come past bacteria which can divide it into pieces. It is also seen in the present biobeds and plants with ozone cleaning how .the retention time can be 5 seconds in order to achieve a reduction of approx. 90% (Low-cost Biofilters for Odor Control, Kevin Janni/Larry Jacobsen, The University of Minnesota, www.bae.umn.edu/extens/manure/). With the stated retention times, there is also seen a reduction of more than 90% of the ammonia . By measuring the concentration of nitrite and nitrate, it can be determined when the water in the tank must be re- placed. Since the ammonia and dust are converted to inorganically dissolved salts, the time of emptying can be determined by a measurement of the conductivity of the water. The removed water contains large amounts of N, and it is therefore valuable as fertiliser on the fields. It should therefore be collected in a tank (slurry tank) so that it can be applied to the plants during their growth period. Only a part of the water shall be removed, so that the system is not emptied of bacteria. If the cleaning for the removal of odour is not suffi- cient, it can be supplemented with another method, e.g. ozone after the pad. Here, the air is free of dust particles, and thus the ozone molecules are not neutralised by the encounter with them. This will provide a far greater effect, and cleaning of ozone pipes is not necessary. It is also possible to inoculate the tank with particularly effective nitrous bacteria, which are able to convert ammonia to nitrite and nitrate at higher concentrations.

Claims: C L A I S 1. Method for the cleaning of room air, especially in livestock buildings, primarily pigsties, by the circulation of the air through a cleaning aggregate, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the air is led through a reactor element of the cooling-pad type, i.e. cross-channel element of porous material which can be moistened, and which is suitable for the retention of both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, and which is continuously held moistened with down-running water over substantially the whole of its area, in that the discharge water from the pad is collected in an underlying container from which it is re-circulated to the top of the reactor element. 2. Method according to claim 1, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the air is pressed or drawn through the reactor element with a capacity corresponding to a retention time in this element of a minimum of 0.1 seconds, preferably 0.1 - 0.3 seconds for the reduction of dust and ammonia and respec- tively 1-10 seconds for the reduction of odour in the air. 3. Method according to claim 1, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the water in said container is replaced from time to time with new water, preferably on the basis of a conductivity measurement, in that the nitrogen-containing water re- moved is used for application as fertilising water. 4. Method according to claim 1, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the air discharged from the reactor element is exposed to a further processing, e.g. with ozone for further reduction of odour in the air. 5. Method according to claim 1, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the water in said container is inoculated with relevant bacteria, especially nitrous bacteria, which can convert ammonia to nitrite and nitrate at relatively high concentrations. 6. Aggregate for the execution of the method according to claim 1, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that it comprises a reactor element of the cooling-pad type and means for circulation of the room air through this element, and means for the moistening of this element with running water and a container for the collection of discharge water from the element for re-circulation of the water. 7. Aggregate according to claim 6, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the container is of a size in the order of 0-02- 0.1 litre per m 3 /air/hour. 8. Aggregate according to claim 6, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that in connection with the container there are means for the detection of the conductivity of the water, and the emission of a signal at a determined maximum value of the conductivity.

Inventors: VENG NIELS SKOV, VENG, NIELS, SKOV
Applicants: SKOV AS, VENG NIELS SKOV, SKOV A/S, VENG, NIELS, SKOV
Application year: 2001
Main classification: B01D53
IPC codes: A01K1, B01D53, F24F3