June 19£¬2006

US state of Illinois funds programme to reduce swine emissions
 

The University of Illinois would be launching a project to test existing technologies that would reduce emissions from swine farms under a US$250,000 grant from the state's Attorney General's Office, the University of Illinois announced. 

Few of the many emission technologies in the market have been tested in the real world, said Michael Ellis, a professor in the Department of Animal Sciences and leader of the project.

The project would involve a number of existing enterprises to not only test these new technologies but demonstrate the best design and management practices to achieve emission reduction. 

Ellis and other U of I researchers have engaged in two major research initiatives involving emissions from swine production facilities in the past 10 years.

The emissions issue is of critical importance to the state's swine industry, as public complaints and concerns about siting of new facilities and expansion of existing operations are mostly on account of emissions, Ellis said. These concerns are major hurdles on long-term public acceptance and the prosperity of the industry, Ellis continued.

According to the Illinois Pork Producers Association (IPPA), the pork industry has invested a significant amount of resources in odour research. IPPA alone has invested nearly US$80,000 towards these efforts.

In late 2004, IPPA initiated the Illinois Pork Odor Research Advisory Committee comprised of pork producers, pork industry representatives, academia, and government officials.

This committee agreed that pork producers needed independently tested and validated information to help them make informed decisions for the most suitable technology for their farms. Technologies and practices were listed that would require further on-farm testing to validate their effectiveness and economic viability. Thus was born the "Discovery Farm" approach, finding a real farm where various technologies are put to the test.

The "Discovery Farm" allows producers to directly and rapidly apply information to their facilities. Appropriate technologies that can be retrofitted to existing production facilities would be looked into, Ellis said.

Among the technologies that Ellis said would be tested are biofilters; chimney stack exhausts; lagoon covers, the ELM system which uses electric currents to kill bacteria and the BEI Biocurtain.