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Potential use of gas
sensors in beef manure nutrient content estimations
Unal Kizil1* and James A. Lindley2
1Elinsan
Environmental Technologies, Bursa-Turkey.
2North
Dakota State Univ., Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
Department, Fargo, ND, U.S.A.
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
unal1975@yahoo.com. Tel: + 90 224 234 1919. Fax: + 90
224 234 0304.
Abbreviations:
A,
Total area under the curve (Vs); a, b, c, d,
regression coefficient; e, intercept; H2O,
manure moisture content (%); t, time (s); Vb,
baseline corrected sensor voltage at a given second i, volt;
Vi, sensor voltage at a given second i, volt; Vmin,
minimum sensor voltage obtained during the operation, volt
and y, nutrient concentration (%).
Accepted
17 April, 2009 |
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The purpose of this study was to develop a gas sensor array
to estimate the manure nutrient contents. Three metal-oxide
gas sensors including methane, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide
were used. Forty manure samples were collected from four
beef operations in Southwest North Dakota. Manure samples
were sent to be analyzed for moisture content,
total-nitrogen (Total-N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) and
ammonium-nitrogen (NH4-N). Regression equations
were developed showing the relationships between sensor
array readings and the lab results. The sensor array was
able to estimate manure N, P, and K with correlation
coefficients of 0.80, 0.76 and 0.70, respectively.
Key
words:
Waste management, animal manure, crop nutrient, gas sensors. |
