Título: A methodology to select particle morpho-chemical characteristics to use in source apportionment of particulate matter from livestock houses
Autor: Cambra López, María; Hermosilla Gómez, Txomin; Aarnink, André Johannes Antonius; Ogink, Nico
Resumen: [EN] Intensive poultry and pig houses are major point sources of particulate matter (PM) emissions. The
knowledge on the contribution of individual sources to PM in different fractions is essential to improve
PM reduction from livestock houses. We developed a methodology to investigate which input data (particle
chemical, morphological or combined characteristics) were best to distinguish amongst specific
sources of airborne PM in livestock houses. We used a validation procedure with classification rules based
on decision trees and analyzed misclassification errors. The PM from two livestock species (poultry and
pigs), and in two different fractions (fine and coarse) was studied. Results showed the selection of the
best input data varied with the sources, which depend on livestock species. Using only particle chemical
characteristics resulted in higher overall classification accuracies (62–68%) than using only morphological
characteristics (40–64%) in poultry and pigs. Particle morphological characteristics can add value
when sources show distinctive and well defined morphologies or differ in size. Using combined chemical
and morphological resulted in the highest overall classification accuracies (average of 69% of particles
correctly assigned to their source) and lowest misclassification errors. This study provides a methodological
approach to assess input data and identifies the most effective characteristics to apportion PM in livestock
houses. These data are promising to determine the contribution of different sources to PM in
livestock houses and give insight in under- and overestimation errors in the source apportionment.
2011 Published by Elsevier B.V.
