Ji-Qin Ni

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• Ph.D.
• Professor at Purdue University West Lafayette

The impact of nanoparticles (NP) mixtures (Fe + Ni + Co, Fe + Ni, Fe + Co, and Ni + Co) on the anaerobic digestion (AD) of cow manure was examined through kinetic modelling (Modified Gompertz, Logistic, and First-order kinetic) and experimental observations. The NPs mixture significantly enhanced biogas production rate and yield potential. The vari...

Animal behaviors are key signs of animals’ stress, disease, and overall well-being. This study was conducted in an experimental farrowing building using eighteen sow pens: nine exposed to natural heat stress under summer indoor temperatures and nine receiving cooling treatments via innovative cooling pads. Sow and piglet behaviors were recorded in...

Digital transformation has become pivotal for enhancing efficiency and sustainable development in animal husbandry. However, this presents challenges to higher education in animal science, necessitating substantial modifications in education and training to ensure that students acquire the competences required to adapt to this digital transformatio...

Foaming in co-digested anaerobic digesters can reduce biogas production, leading to economic loss. However, the underlying causes of foaming are not completely understood. This study investigated a field-scale mesophilic digester system that experienced intermittent foaming, employing experimental and modeling methods over a 16-month period. Sample...

Determining ventilation rates in commercial animal buildings has been technically challenging. This study aimed to develop an innovative method and a ventilation model and provide new insights into animal building ventilation. A layer house with 46 fans was studied over six months. A full-size and fast-response portable fan tester was developed for...

Background Affordable particulate matter (PM) monitors suitable for use on horses will facilitate the evaluation of PM mitigation methods and improve the management of equine asthma. Objective Calibrate a real‐time wearable PM monitor (Black Beauty [BB]) and compare the PM exposures of horses fed dry or soaked hay. Study design Laboratory calibra...

Farrowing facility macroenvironment temperatures (TMacro) are often maintained at the upper end of the thermoneutral zone (24–25°C) of lactating sows, which may result in heat stress and reduced milk quality and quantity. Therefore, the study objective was to evaluate the impact of TMacro on thermoregulatory and milk quality parameters in lactating...

Asia has the world's largest population and the largest number of biogas digesters, with implementation across 25 countries. These countries can be categorised into four groups based on their biogas development status. Asia has approximately 45.03 million biogas digesters, of which about 99.72% are household units and 0.28% are industrial digesters...

The objective of this paper is to gain insights into the synergistic advantage of anaerobic co-fermentation of heat-treated sludge (HS) with food waste (FW) and heat-treated food waste (HFW) for hydrogen production. The results showed that, compared with raw sludge (RS) mixed with FW (RS-FW), the co-substrate of HS mixed with either FW (HS-FW) or H...

Pre-weaned piglets prefer higher temperatures than lactating sows. To address this, swine producers use heating lamps or pads in combination with maintaining farrowing room macroenvironment temperatures at the upper end of the thermoneutral zone (24-25℃) of the lactating sow. This may inadvertently cause thermal stress for lactating sows resulting...

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is the most undesirable inorganic gas in biogas from anaerobic digestion (AD). However, H2S production in AD is complex and understanding of its processes is still limited. This study performed six controlled batch anaerobic co-digestion experiments to investigate H2S production. Materials were obtained from four field anaero...

Digester acclimatization can improve the efficiency of anaerobic digestion (AD), a potentially sustainable process for generating biogas from the biological decomposition of organic byproducts from biodiesel production. This study examined the impact of acclimatization rate on biogas production and conversion efficiency in laboratory digesters usin...

Large variabilities in ammonia (NH3) released from animal manure and emitted from different livestock buildings were frequently reported, but the factors influencing the emissions were not sufficiently investigated. In this paper, continuously monitored data of NH3 emissions and other relevant environmental variables under controlled conditions in...

Ammonia (NH3), carbon dioxide (CO2), and particulate matter (PM) are three major aerial pollutants that threat the health of workers and animals in poultry production. An experiment was conducted in four laying hen rooms, with 735 to 740 hens per room, to study a new technology using artificial turf (AstroTurf®) floor for mitigation of the three po...

The dissemination of biogas technology in the rural sector of Third World countries has not been satisfactory. This article is an attempt to explore the factors behind this situation. It is observed that the adopter's motivation plays a key role in the acceptance or rejection of the rural digester. This in turn is influenced by a whole range of fac...

Ammonia (NH3), carbon dioxide (CO2), and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) are predominant gases that are responsible for indoor air quality and air pollution emitted from pig buildings. They are critical for the health of pigs, farm workers, and people living nearby. To achieve an accurate estimation of gas emissions, firstly, hybrid deep learning driven seq...

Simple Summary Microclimate conditions in broiler housing are significant for maximizing poultry production and ensuring the welfare of the birds. In the present study, we modeled summer and winter microclimates in a mechanically ventilated broiler house. Validation of the simulated values was accomplished through comparison to field measurements....

Mixed sex pigs (n = 720) were placed in 12 rooms (Purdue Swine Environmental Research Building) to measure the effect of reduced crude protein (CP), amino acid (AA)-supplemented diets on growth and the carcass. Pigs were blocked by body weight (BW) and gender and allotted to room and pen (10 mixed-sex pigs/pen). Pigs were fed a 9-phase, wean-finish...

Highlights Approximately ten cases were documented annually over the 44-year period; 48% were in the last decade and 28% were in the last three years, primarily due to more aggressive surveillance and on-line access to incident reports. A total of 389 incidents involving 459 individuals were documented, of which 59% were fatal; >85% of the victims...

International Symposium on Animal Environment and Welfare (ISAEW) 2021 is the sixth of a series of biennial academic events. This proceedings book publishes 47 scientific research and review papers of the ISAEW 2021 in five themes. The 176 authors and co-authors of these papers were from six countries (Belgium, Canada, China, Japan, The Netherlands...

In the past 25 years, we have conducted more than 20 laboratory and field studies related to hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in animal production. From millions of first-hand and real-world H2S data points, we found that sulfur (S) source, release mechanism, and ventilation are three critical factors affecting toxic H2S concentrations. Source of S determine...

Highlights A total of 133 cases were documented in a seven-state region, with Iowa reporting 43% of the cases and asphyxiations accounting for 42% of all cases. Most victims were male (>79%) with an average age of 38 years. The overall fatality rate was 57%, and 16% of the victims were under the age of 21. Thirteen incidents involved secondary vic...

Few studies have investigated the performance of anaerobic digestion (AD) to convert animal and agro-industrial wastes to organic fertilizers over a long-term under field conditions. This paper studied three large-scale mesophilic digesters (D1–D3) over two years for their effects on feedstocks, which were dairy manure for D1 and D2 and co-digestio...

Highlights Annual average PM 10 (daily) and PM 2.5 (hourly) concentrations of 509 ±203 and 43.3 ±36.1 µg m ⁻³ , respectively. Significant seasonal and diurnal variations in PM concentrations; higher in colder seasons and during daytime. Annual average PM 10 (daily) and PM 2.5 (hourly) emission rates of 17.9 ±9.6 and 1.41 ±1.53 mg d ⁻¹ hen ⁻¹ , resp...

Highlights Annual average NH 3 concentrations in two retrofitted manure-belt layer houses were 4.0 ±3.3 and 5.2 ±3.0 ppmv. Seasonal and diurnal variations were observed for NH 3 concentrations (higher in colder seasons and early morning). Annual average NH 3 emission rates from the two layer houses were 0.081 ±0.004 and 0.099 ±0.004 g d ⁻¹ hen ⁻¹ ....

(Open access article) Air pollution generates hazardous pollutants that have resulted in safety, health, and other welfare issues of food animals. This paper reviewed scientific research advancement in food animal welfare-related air pollution based on 219 first-hand research publications in refereed journals (referred to as “RPs”) over the past ni...

Indoor environment conditions in confined pig buildings are critical for pig health, welfare and reproductions. It is necessary to explore the correlations of indoor thermal environment and gas concentrations conditions and their characteristics in order to provide a basis for developing an optimal pig building environment control strategy. In this...

Animal manure could be hazardous to human and animals if not managed properly. Laying hen manure in two commercial manure-belt houses was sampled in seven events over two years. A total of 124 samples was taken in randomly-selected 3-D space with 24 subspaces, composed of 3 sections × 4 sides × 2 floors in the houses. The samples were analyzed for...

Objective Manure storage, handling, and transport facilities and equipment have been associated with life threatening hazards on many livestock farms. These hazards have been documented in prior research as including 1) exposure to toxic manure gases or lack of adequate oxygen in enclosed structures, which can be fatal to both humans and livestock;...

Corn stover for bioenergy production has been in development because of its environmental benefits and displacement of conventional energy. This study compared, from cradle-to-grave life-cycle assessment (LCA) perspective, energy performance and environmental impacts among corn stover-based bioenergy pathways of production of electricity (CSE), bio...

Animal agriculture Computational fluid dynamics Emission model Poultry housing Regulation Poultry production significantly contributes to atmospheric ammonia (NH 3) emissions, causing concerns over their environmental impacts and the effects on human and bird health inside the poultry houses. A model is needed to estimate NH 3 emissions from poultr...

Pollutant gases and particulate matters (PM) from livestock facilities can affect the health of animals and farm workers and lead to great social environmental risks. This paper presents a comprehensive study on the characteristics of ammonia (NH3), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and PM (including PM2.5 and PM10) in a 100,000-bird manu...

A mechanistic model was developed for estimating ammonia (NH3) emission from laying hen manure based on measurements from a laboratory-scale wind-tunnel experiment. Ammonia emissions were measured continuously for 3-6 d from manure samples under 17 different combinations of air temperatures (20.0-33.5 C) and air velocities (0.25 -1.17 m s-1). The c...

This Proceedings of International Symposium on Animal Environment and Welfare (ISAEW2019) publishes 51 research and review papers. These papers cover various interesting subject matters with cutting-edge research findings and improved understanding of the issues associated with animal production environment and animal welfare in Asia, Europe, and N...

Antibiotic use and ammonia (NH3) emissions during animal production are two environmental issues of worldwide concern. However, the role of antibiotics on NH3 emissions is still unknown. This study evaluated the effects of rearing pigs without antibiotics on NH3 emissions from a swine experimental building starting with 657 piglets during a wean-to...

Corn stover is an abundant raw material that can be used to produce ethanol and reduce air pollution. This paper studied the potential reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions across China if corn stover was used for ethanol production. Field surveys in nine provincial regions were conducted. Life-cycle asses...

Compressed bio-natural gas (CBG) production from large-scale systems has been recognized as promising because of the abundance of manure and crop residue feedstocks and its environmental friendliness. This study is a life cycle assessment using the local database of an operating large-scale CBG system of manure co-digestion with corn stover in Chin...

With the rapid development of modern agriculture facilities, agricultural fans have been widely used due to their low pressure and large airflow characteristics. However, existing agricultural fans have large flow losses and low energy efficiencies. To increase the airflow and energy efficiency of these fans, optimization designs based on skewed an...

Short battery life limits the applicability of wearable sensors in animal behaviour monitoring. This research developed an ear-attached acceleration sensor of low power consumption for sow welfare studies. The sensor weighed only 10.0 g and was composed of a 3-axis accelerometer, a Bluetooth Low Energy module, a printed circuit board antenna, and a...

As part of ongoing surveillance of fatalities and injuries involving agricultural confined spaces by Purdue University’s Agricultural Safety and Health Program, nearly 300 cases involving manure storage, handling, and transport equipment and facilities have been documented over the past 30 years. With the exception of a summary of 77 fatalities pub...

Ammonia (NH3) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) are among the most significant pollutant gases in modern swine production relating to animal and worker well-being. Large quantities of NH3 emissions can have negative impacts on environment and ecosystems. In addition to affecting health of workers and animals, high concentrations of H2S can even pose immed...

In this essay, we provide an overview of how production systems can be re-engineered to improve the welfare of the animals involved. At least three potential options exist: (1) engineering their environments to better fit the animals, (2) engineering the animals themselves to better fit their environments, and (3) eliminating the animals from the s...

Mixing fans (MFFs) are widely used in ventilation of agricultural buildings to improve the uniformity of the air supply, thereby improving the ventilation efficiency. In order to improve the ventilation performance of MFFs, a new visor-shaped diffuser was designed and installed on a MFF. The angle and the length of the diffuser were crucial paramet...

In confined animal buildings, ammonia (NH3) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) are two of the major pollutant gases that can have negative impacts on animal health and welfare. Reduced dietary crude protein (CP) with supplementation of amino acid (AA) was studied with 720 pigs in a 12-room research building for a complete cycle that covered wean-to-finish...

Indoor air temperature is an important environment factor for the health and production of pigs, especially in confined swine buildings, where environment control is mainly based on the temperature. A temperature simulation method was proposed based on the energy balance equation (EBE) to improve temperature control and reduce energy consumptions a...

Manure additives are widely used to mitigate gas and odor emissions from manure or improve manure properties. However, the reported effectiveness of some manure additive products has been mixed and most of the studies on poultry manure have been on chemical additives. A laboratory study was conducted to evaluate an enzyme-based commercial manure ad...

This proceedings book is a collection of academic papers published in the 2017 International Symposium on Animal Environment and Welfare (ISAEW 2017), which is the fourth of a series of biennial academic events. The 59 papers in the proceedings are divided into six themes . Themes I to III are devoted to indoor and outdoor animal environment. Theme...

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a toxic air pollutant at animal facilities; but the understanding of its generation and emission processes has been limited. This paper studied H2S emissions during a complete cycle of wean-finish pigs from a research building, where 12 pig rooms were divided into three groups that were fed with standard feed (control), an...

In confined swine buildings, temperature, humidity, and air quality are all important for animal health and productivity. However, the current swine building environmental control is only based on temperature; and evaluation and control methods based on multiple environmental factors are needed. In this paper, fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (FCE) t...

In confined feeding operations, animal activity can affect environmental variables such as indoor gas and dust concentrations, which can have negative impact on animal health and welfare. Therefore, monitoring animal activities is important in research into the environment of animal rearing. In this study, low-cost Passive Infrared Detector (PID) m...

Ventilation rate is equally important as pollutant concentration in aerial emission quantification, but is technically challenging to determine for animal buildings. A simple and reliable method using 240-VAC to 6-VDC unregulated adapters to monitor 24 single-speed wall-mount ventilation fans was applied in a 12-room swine environmental research bu...

To mitigate ammonia (NH3) emissions from pig production and understand dynamic emission profiles, reduced dietary crude protein (CP) with amino acid supplementation was studied with 720 pigs in a 12-room research building for 155days that covered from weaned to finishing stages. The pigs were divided into three 4-room groups and fed with 2.1-3.8% r...

Manure-belt layer hen houses are a relatively newer design and are replacing the old high-rise layer hen houses for egg production in USA. However, reliable aerial pollutant emission data from comprehensive and long-term on-farm monitoring at manure-belt houses are scarce. This paper reports the emission factors and characteristics of ammonia (NH3)...

Air pollutants emitted from confined animal buildings can cause environmental pollution and eco-logical damage. Long-term (>6 months) and continuous (or high frequency) monitoring that can reveal seasonal and diurnal variations is needed to obtain emission factors and characteristics about these pollutants. A two-year continuous monitoring of ammon...

Ammonia (NH3) is considered one of the significant pollutions contributor to indoor air quality and odor gas emission from swine house because of the negative impact on the health of pigs, the workers and local environment. Prediction models could provide a reasonable way for pig industries and environment regulatory to determine environment contro...

Composting facilities are essential parts of most manure-belt (MB) poultry houses in the U.S., but their NH3 concentrations and emission are not well understood. This may affect farm operation safety and limit the development of NH3 mitigation and management strategies. The study aimed to quantify NH3 concentrations and hen-specific emission rates...

Swine house environment is an important factor that affects pig health, growth and reproduction. It plays a key role in the pig production and has received extensive attention. Swine house environment is referred to the external conditions that influence the growth, reproduction and development of pigs, including air temperature, humidity, light, a...

To provide reliable data on the indoor environment in livestock buildings, continuous measurements were conducted in two commercial naturally-ventilated pig weaner barns in eastern China. The barn floors were partially-slatted and pig manure was removed daily. Indoor temperature and relative humidity (T and RH), and concentrations of carbon dioxide...

Manure pit ventilation is a common design in commercial pig-rearing buildings. However, determining accurate pit ventilation rates is technically challenging. A new pit exhaust airflow measurement assembly (PEAMA) was developed to directly and continuously measure airflow rates for tube-mounting variable-speed pit fans. The PEAMA consists of a PVC...

Aerial pollutants generated from intensive poultry and livestock production raise concerns of health and welfare for the surrounding communities. This article reports emission rates of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from two tunnel-ventilated high-rise houses at a layer site in North Carolina that wer...

Extra cooling pads on the sidewalls are needed for larger poultry houses using tunnel ventilation system. Preliminary study showed that the airflow velocity going through different aisles varies greatly when the extra pads are installed at the end of sidewalls, making a “[”-shape air inlet. Combined with field tests, the CFD (computational fluid dy...

Global population growth creates the quandary of meeting increased demands for food, particularly in developing nations, while addressing ethical and sustainability concerns about food production that already challenge developed nations. The issue of farm animal welfare has rapidly become a hallmark of contemporary debates about animal agriculture....

Ventilation rate is one of the key variables to quantify aerial emissions from animal feeding operations but is technically challenging to measure. This research aimed at developing a new system to reliably and continuously monitor ventilation rate at a state-of-the-science pig environmental building, which consists of 12 rooms of 11.0 × 6.1 × 2.7...

Ventilation rate is one of the key variables to quantify aerial emissions from animal feeding operations but is technically challenging to measure. This research aimed at developing a new system to reliably and continuously monitor ventilation rate at a state-of-the-science pig environmental building, which consists of 12 rooms of 11.0 × 6.1 × 2.7...

Odour emissions from poultry facilities have caused significant public concerns, but very limited odour data are available to facilitate scientific understanding and effective mitigation of the odour concerns. The objective of this study is to characterize odour emissions from representative layer houses and quantify the odour concentrations and em...

Final Report Submitted to Indiana Soybean Alliance

The 2015 International Symposiums on Animal Environment and Welfare (ISAEW 2015) is the third of a biennial symposium series organized by the International Research Center for Animal Environment and Welfare (IRCAEW), which was initiated by 11 acdemic institutions from five different countries and established in 2011 at Chongqing Academy of Animal S...

Field and laboratory studies were conducted to evaluate the effects of anaerobic digestion (AD) and solids-liquid separation on emissions during subsequent storage and land application. The lab storage tests were conducted for 21 days with manure samples obtained at the following four points in a full-scale AD system: raw manure (RM) delivery, raw...

Concentrations and emissions of ammonia (NH3) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) data for two naturally ventilated freestall dairy barns, within a one-year window of a two-year measurement effort, are presented in this article. Barn I (B1) had a capacity of 400 fresh-lactating Holstein cows, while barn 2 (B2) had a capacity of 850 non-fresh-lactating Holst...

There was an increasing interest in reducing production and emission of air pollutants to improve air quality for animal feeding operations (AFOs) in the U.S. in the 21st century. Research was focused on identification, quantification, characterization, and modeling of air pollutions; effects of emissions; and methodologies and technologies for sci...

Knowledge about characteristics of gas releases from various types of organic wastes can assist in developing gas pollution reduction technologies and establishing environmental regulations. Five different organic wastes, i.e., four types of animal manure (swine, beef, dairy, and layer hen) and municipal wastewater, were studied for their character...

Greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions from two naturally-ventilated free-stall dairy barns were measured continuously during a three-month study period (May, July and September, 2009). Barn 1 (B1) housed 400 fresh cows, while Barn 2 (B2) housed 850 lactating cows. Air samples of inlet and outlet of the barns for measurement of GHG (carbon dioxide, nitro...

Volatile fatty acids (VFA) play an important role in the biodegradation of organic wastes and production of bioenergy under anaerobic digestion, and are related to malodors. However, little is known about the dynamics of VFA during dairy manure storage. This study evaluated the characteristics of VFA in dairy manure before and after anaerobic co-di...

Ventilation rate is one of the key variables to quantify aerial emissions from animal feeding operations but is technically challenging to measure. This research aimed at developing a new system to reliably and continuously monitor ventilation rate at a state-of-the-science pig environmental building, which consists of 12 rooms of 11.0 × 6.1 × 2.7...

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is useful for determining ventilation rates in livestock buildings and its release from manure plays an important role in ammonia emission. CO2 production in a fattening pig house with a partial pit ventilation system was investigated under working conditions. The influences of animal mass, animal activity, and ventilation rate...

With concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) becoming larger and more intensive, air pollutant emissions from these facilities are of increasing concern for regulators and the public, and on-farm measurements of emissions are needed. A critical step in determining air pollutant emissions from the barns at these facilities is the accurate ass...

Air pollutant emission rates from mechanically ventilated (MV) dairy barns are determined from the product of the differences in concentrations of pollutants in air at the inlet and exhaust points and the corresponding ventilation rates. In contrast to well defined entry and exit points in MV barns, large area air inlets or outlets characterize nat...

Volatile fatty acids (VFA) are among the most abundant volatile organic compounds in dairy manure and are associated with odour nuisance. This paper presents research results of VFA production during a three-month storage of dairy manure from four different sources: a dairy barn (raw), the inlet of an anaerobic digester (influent), the digester out...

Air pollutants in animal production are associated with indoor air quality, which could affect worker and animal health and animal welfare, and outdoor air quality, which could contribute to environmental pollution, ecological damage, and potential climate change. There has been an increasing interest in reducing productions and emissions of air po...

The National Air Emissions Monitoring Study (NAEMS) was established by the U.S. EPA and the U.S. livestock and poultry industries to address the lack of scientific air emission data needed for properly assessing compliance with federal air laws and regulations. A North Carolina egg layer farm (NC2B) was one of 20 NAEMS monitored farms. Emission rat...

Air emissions from animal feeding operation (AFO) facilities have been of increasing concern. While the EPA was pressured to put more stringent regulations on the AFO industry, there was an absence of suitable emission data to support regulatory decisions for different AFOs due to limitations of past studies and the absence of standard measurement...

The effects of house lighting, forced molting, manure removal, and flock replacement on air pollutant concentrations and emissions from high-rise tunnel-ventilated layer houses were evaluated. Air pollutants included ammonia (NH3), carbon dioxide (CO2), and particulate matter (PM, including PM10, PM2.5, and total suspended particulate, TSP). Emissi...

This article reports two years of quality-assured measurements of concentrations and baseline emissions of ammonia (NH3) at two tunnel-ventilated high-rise houses (houses 3 and 4) located at an egg production facility in North Carolina. The study was conducted as part of the National Air Emissions Monitoring Study (NAEMS). The inside NH3 concentrat...

Particulate matter (PM) concentrations and ventilation rates, in two naturally ventilated freestall dairy barns, were continuously monitored for two years. The first barn (B1) housed 400 fresh lactating cows, while the second barn (B2) housed 835 non-fresh lactating cows and 15 bulls. The relationships between PM concentrations and accepted governi...

Odor emission from swine housing is influenced by the herd characteristics and building environment. The following three specific factors were identified as inputs to a swine house odor emission model: indoor temperature, barn ventilation rate, and pig activity. Model input parameters were determined based on tests of four, identical, 1000-head, me...

Ammonia emission from manure following land application reduces fertilizer value of the manure and could have adverse impacts on the environment. Manure pretreatments and methods of manure application, however, may impact ammonia volatilization. Field- and lab-scale experiments were conducted to study the effects of anaerobic digestion (AD) and man...