ARS | Publication request: SURFICIAL OXYGEN TRANSFER INTO TREATMENT LAGOONS AND POTENTIAL N PATHWAYS RESULTING IN DINITROGEN GAS EMISSION

Submitted to: International Conference on Greenhouse Gasses and Animal Agriculture
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: July 1, 2005
Publication Date: September 20, 2005
Citation: Ro, K.S., Hunt, P.G., Poach, M.E. 2005. Surficial oxygen transfer into treatment lagoons and potential N pathways resulting in dinitrogen gas emission. International Conference on Greenhouse Gasses and Animal Agriculture, September 20-24, 2005, Zurich, Switzerland. p. 282-285.

Technical Abstract: Surficial oxygen transfer plays an important role when analyzing the complex biochemical and physical processes responsible for ammonia emission and removal in the animal waste treatment lagoons. This study 1) presents the synthesis of a new, unified equation for oxygen mass transfer coefficients based on the gas transfer data in the literature of the last 50 years and 2) discusses the potential nitrogen pathways responsible for the dinitrogen gas emissions observed from the treatment lagoons. The new empirical oxygen-transfer equation is a function of Schmidt number and wind speed. With this new equation, the maximum surficial oxygen fluxes into the treatment lagoons were estimated. The stoichiometric amounts of the maximum dinitrogen gas production per kg oxygen were calculated based on the three different biological pathways for ammonia removal in the treatment lagoons; classical nitrification-denitrification, partial nitrification-denitrification, and partial nitrification-Anammox. Comparing the stoichiometric nitrogen production with the observed nitrogen emission data, the classical nitrification-denitrification pathway appears to be the dominant biochemical pathway for nitrogen removal. However, one nitrogen emission data set with a much higher value than that can be supported by known biological processes also suggests that non-biological nitrogen process may also be important in these treatment lagoons.