Electrochemical mitigation of hydrogen sulfide in deep-pit swine manure storage

Lingkan Ding; Hongjian Lin; Brian Hetchler; Yuchuan Wang; Wei Wei; Bo Hu

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146048

Electrochemical mitigation of hydrogen sulfide in deep-pit swine manure storage

Sci Total Environ. 2021 Jul 10:777:146048. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146048. Epub 2021 Feb 24.

Authors

Lingkan Ding¹, Hongjian Lin², Brian Hetchler¹, Yuchuan Wang¹, Wei Wei³, Bo Hu⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, 1390 Eckles Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
² College of Biosystem Engineering and Food Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
³ Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Metropolitan State University, 700 East 7(th) Street, St. Paul, MN 55106, USA.
⁴ Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, 1390 Eckles Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108, USA. Electronic address: bhu@umn.edu.

PMID: 33677300
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146048

Abstract

Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) is a toxic and hazardous gas and is commonly present in livestock operations, which occasionally causes associated exposure accidents. This study evaluated the effectiveness of electrochemical control of H₂S in lab-scale swine manure storage using different electrode materials, and further selected suitable materials to demonstrate the performance of a pilot-scale field test in the deep-pit manure storage of a 200-head swine barn. In the lab-scale test, electrochemical sulfide oxidation mainly contributed to the H₂S mitigation, resulting in high H₂S removal efficiencies when using low carbon steel (LCS) and stainless steel 304 (SS304) as electrodes. Based on their better H₂S treatment performance and lower material costs, LCS and SS304 were selected for the pilot-scale test. In a 92-day operation, the pilot-scale demonstration showed H₂S removal efficiencies of 84.0% and 63.5% for LCS and SS304, respectively. A techno-economic assessment indicated that the installation and operation of the electrochemical system accounted for 16% of barn construction cost using LCS as electrodes. Further optimization may substantially decrease the electrode material consumption and the overall cost.

Keywords: Deep-pit swine manure storage; Electrochemical treatment; Hydrogen sulfide; Low carbon steel; Pilot-scale demonstration.