2. Belgium – EL ILVO – P21

Demonstrator: Experimental dairy and pig barn of EV ILVO – Technologies to reduce GHG emissions

Type and volume of input materials/products

State-of-the-art research barns, for dairy cows, sows and fattening pigs, including specific equipment to monitor growth, feed efficiency, emissions, energy usage, etc, equipped with sensor nodes, data acquisitive and processing to form a reference measuring method.

Type & volume of output materials/products

Real time information on the temporal and spatial distribution of indoor air quality parameters (including visualisation); measurement of the emission levels of air pollutants based on the monitoring network (OTICE).

ILVO_demonstration-site-1

Emissions measurement at the exhaust with a calibrated measuring fan to measure ventilation rate. The white tube is the sampling location for gas. The air is transported to the gas analyser to measure the concentrations in the exhaust air.

During the last year, the ILVO Pig Campus was the place to be for an experiment that demonstrated the effect of daily manure pit emptying on the emissions of a fattening pig barn. Emissions were monitored in real-time and visualised in a dashboard.

The emission measuring techniques are continuously being optimised. Based on the experiment, new measuring fans were installed and during the experiment a new ammonia and carbon dioxide sensor was being tested.

ILVO_demonstration-site-2

Εmission data from the barn

Gas concentrations can be measured in several ways. The reference system that we use is a gas analyser (white tube on the picture transfers gas to the analyser), though highly reliable, these devices are expensive. The OTICE system uses more affordable sensors to monitor emissions. By hanging the sensor and the gas sampling point at the same location, we can compare the result of both.

ILVO_demonstration-site-4

This is a picture of a fattening pig compartment in the Pig Campus at ILVO. Inside a compartment there is a service alley alongside 8 fattening pig pens. Each pen houses up to 6 pigs.