Comparison of analysis methods for ammonia from swine production facilities

This study was performed to evaluate the accuracy, validation and applicability of UV spectrophotometer (UV), Ion Chromatography (IC), and Detector tube (DT) methods for measuring ammonia (NH₃) concentration in a swine confinement house and swine slurry storage tank. The mean values of NH₃ emitted from the house and slurry were 5.333 ppm and 42.192 ppm for the IC method; 4.13 ppm and 36.29 ppm for the Detector tube; and 5.417 ppm and 34.193 ppm for the UV method. The accuracy and the correlation of an ammonia level analyzed by the IC method compared to the UV method were 98% and 0.998(R²) in the swine confinement house and 94% and 0.997(R ²) in the swine slurry storage tank. On the other hand, those of ammonia level measured by the Detector tube compared to the UV method were 77% and 0.957(R²) in the swine confinement house and 82% and 0.941(R ²) in the swine slurry storage tank. This indicated that the accuracy and the correlation of the IC method compared to the UV method were higher than those of the Detector tube method compared to the UV method. Therefore, it was concluded that the IC method was more accurate in measuring ammonia concentration in a swine house and a swine slurry storage tank. The Detector tube method should not be applied to the swine slurry storage tank in which ammonia concentration is generally higher than 30 ppm because low accuracy is caused by a gross space between scales inscribed in the Detector tube.