Treatment of airborne pollutants in livestock buildings with ozone as potential abatement option

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated the negative effects of sub-optimal air quality on profitability, production efficiency, occupational health and safety, environmental sustainability and animal welfare. Ozone application has been used in North America to reduce internal air pollutant concentrations in livestock buildings and as a result potentially reduce airborne pollution emission. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the potential of using low concentration ozone (0.03 ppm) in Australian piggery buildings to reduce airborne pollution levels within piggery buildings and thus reduce pollution emission potentially. The data collected during the experiments demonstrated that ozone could be used effectively to reduce airborne bacteria (on average by 30% within this study) and reduce the concentration of inhalable particles (by 21% on average within this study). However, it appeared that ozone treatment did increase the concentration of respirable particles in the airspace of piggery buildings (within this study by approximately 26% on average).