Building Emissions Uncertainty Estimates

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2009-01-01
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Casey, Kenneth
Xin, Hongwei
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Xin, Hongwei
Distinguished Professor Emeritus
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Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering

Since 1905, the Department of Agricultural Engineering, now the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (ABE), has been a leader in providing engineering solutions to agricultural problems in the United States and the world. The department’s original mission was to mechanize agriculture. That mission has evolved to encompass a global view of the entire food production system–the wise management of natural resources in the production, processing, storage, handling, and use of food fiber and other biological products.

History
In 1905 Agricultural Engineering was recognized as a subdivision of the Department of Agronomy, and in 1907 it was recognized as a unique department. It was renamed the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering in 1990. The department merged with the Department of Industrial Education and Technology in 2004.

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1905–present

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  • Department of Agricultural Engineering (1907–1990)

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Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
Abstract

Analysis of the propagation of measurement error into a computed quantity such as building aerial emissions provides insight into which measurements are most critical and which would have the most impact on the computed quantity if improved. An analysis of different instrument measurements, sampling periods, and sites together comprise an objective means of determining optimal sampling strategies for measurements used to compute aerial emissions from livestock facilities. This article describes the uncertainty analysis for a measurement system used in emissions research, and how it can lead to improvements in measurement system design and implementation to obtain estimates of uncertainty in emissions. The system analyzed was used in a broiler house emission monitoring project that was part of the U.S. EPA Air Consent Agreement. The project required U.S. EPA category I Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) Data Quality Objectives (DQO), which were developed from this uncertainty analysis. Results of the uncertainty analysis suggest that the combined standard uncertainty in ammonia emission from broiler houses in the study was typically less than 6%; it increased with uncertainty in ventilation rate, but decreased as ventilation rate and number of fans running increased. The combined standard uncertainty was quantified for normal measurement conditions (Case 1) and for conditions in which the instrumentation was at the calibration threshold (Case 2). A key conclusion was that, for the measurement system employed in this project, uncertainty in the measurements associated with ventilation rate are the major contributors to emissions rate uncertainty (ranging from 78% to 98.9% of combined standard emission uncertainty).

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This article is from Transactions of the ASABE 52, no. 4 (2009): 1345–1351.

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Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 UTC 2009
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