Characterization of lagoon gases by an electronic nose

Abstract

Manure management systems produce 10% of total US anthropogenic methane emissions, which is a concern since methane is a potent greenhouse gas. As intensive livestock production increases and anaerobic lagoons continue to play an important role in the decomposition of livestock wastes, the need for accurate and reliable devices for field monitoring of emissions exists. Studies were undertaken into the use of an array of chemical gas sensors for the detection and characterization of lagoon biogas. The sensors were found to respond to methane at high concentrations and resulted in unique and distinguishable response patterns at different methane concentrations, temperatures, and humidities. Pattern recognition algorithms were used to distinguish between the characteristic sensor response patterns produced. It was also found that when odorous compounds, typical of swine manure, were present in the gas stream the resulting response patterns were significantly different and showed increased spread which made classification of these responses considerably easier.