Above, Gabriella Varga, distinguished professor of animal science, shows a handful of vermiculite, a unique mineral that, when used as a supplement to cattle feed, may bind ammonia in manure and reduce emissions of the gas from farms.

Although gas and prticulate emission regulations are only now being enforced for animal agriculture by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences has been studying ways to measure and reduce gas emissions and odor from farms for years.

Federal scrutiny of agricultural emissions results mainly from increasing neighbor complaints about odors and dust coming from concentrated animal feeding operations. EPA action on farm emissions caught many in the agriculture community off guard, but not scientists at Penn State, according to agricultural engineer Eileen Wheeler, who has completed research on gas emissions.

“We have been studying how to detect, limit, and control emission of gases, such as ammonia, for more than three years,” she says. “We are actually ahead of the game here at Penn State. People have been interested in farm odor, and we have completed several odor-reduction projects over the past decade, but we couldn’t seem to get folks as interested in agricultural gas and particle emissions. Now that the EPA has stated intent to enforce regulations on farms, people are sitting up and taking notice.

“The EPA was getting a lot of complaints about strong odors from folks downwind of concentrated animal feeding operations, but the agency has no odor-control regulations,” Wheeler adds. “So, federal officials decided to break down odor into component gases and materials that can be regulated, such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and particulates. It’s an area in which we have a lot of expertise here at Penn State.”