Measurements and modeling of atmospheric flux of ammonia from an anaerobic dairy waste lagoon

Atmospheric anthropogenic ammonia (NH3) emissions are not well understood in the US due to a lack of measurement data from the main emission sources. This paper describes concentration measurements downwind of an anaerobic dairy waste lagoon using differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS), tracer ratio flux experiments and the testing of two mechanistic emission models. The tracer ratio method involves releasing a measured flux of a tracer gas upwind of the lagoon and measuring the concentration downwind along with the DOAS NH3 measurement. The flux is calculated by ratioing the tracer flux and concentration with the NH3 concentration and taking into account the differences in area and dispersion over the area source. Measured fluxes from the tracer experiments ranged from at an air temperature of to at an air temperature of . The NH3 emission models were based upon the temperature-dependent biological activity, the partitioning of NH3 and in solution, and the partitioning of NH3 between the gas and liquid phases. The theoretical mechanistic model and the empirical mechanistic model had normalized mean errors of 120% and 21%, respectively, when compared to measurements. Emissions were most sensitive to changes in lagoon pH. Annual emissions were from all lagoons, estimated excretion is . Using literature lagoon design criteria to estimate lagoon size resulted in an underestimation of emissions of -29%.