A new air cleaning technology to synergistically reduce odor and bioaerosol emissions from livestock houses

Odor and bioaerosols have serious impacts on the biological safety of animal production and the ecological environment. Thus, it is particularly important to explore synergistic air cleaning technology to solve these problems. In this study, a pilot-scale air cleaning equipment were applied to an experimental manure storage house to determine the removal efficiency of gaseous pollution using four treatments groups. These treatment groups include acid scrubbing + caustic scrubbing (AC), acid scrubbing + caustic scrubbing + photocatalytic oxidation (ACP), acid scrubbing + caustic scrubbing + biological scrubbing (ACB), and acid scrubbing + caustic scrubbing + biological scrubbing + photocatalytic oxidation (ACBP). Results showed that ACP can synergistically remove odor and bioaerosol, with ammonia, odor concentrations, hydrogen sulfide, methyl mercaptan, methyl sulfide, bacterial aerosol, and fugal aerosol removal efficiencies of 89.1 %, 76.3 %, 100 %, 94.2 %, 91.2 %, 75.6 %, and 83.6 %, respectively. Furthermore, ACBP has the highest removal efficiency of 79.2 % for odor concentration, but this combination has a low inactivation efficiency (< 25 %) for bacterial aerosols. Moreover, adding biological scrubbing before photocatalytic can reduce the conversion from aromatic hydrocarbons to Oxygenated VOCs. Findings of this study provide a theoretical basis and technical support for the application of air cleaning technology in livestock houses. [Display omitted] •Gaseous pollutants removal by 4 treatment groups in a pilot-scale air cleaning equipment was studied.•ACP can synergistically remove odor and bioaerosol.•Removal of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, methyl mercaptan, methyl sulfide, and bacterial aerosol by ACP was 75.6–100 %•Adding biological scrubbing section before photocatalytic can reduce the conversion of aromatic hydrocarbons to OVOCs.