VERA is an international organisation for testing and verifying environmental technologies within the agricultural sector. VERA is an abbreviation for verification of environmental technologies for agricultural production and was initiated by the national Danish, German and Dutch environmental and agricultural authorities in 2008.
VERA consists of a number of collaborating parties, technical experts and independent institutions. The International VERA Board – IVB consists of representatives from the national agricultural and environmental authorities from the three participating countries. The IVB is the decision making authority that establishes the rules, criteria, and scope of the VERA activities.
The technical strength of VERA is essential, and is maintained by a number of technical experts from each of the three participating countries. The technical experts are appointed to each of the technology subject areas within VERA and they are organized in the International Verification Committee – IVC. The IVC is in charge of revising existing protocols and developing entirely new ones. Furthermore they play a central role in ensuring the uniformity and reliability of the test and verification activities that are carried out within the VERA framework.
The VERA test is carried out by independent test institutes. They have the main responsibility for planning, conducting and reporting test activities according to the VERA test protocols. The test institutes are independent organisations and therefore not directly a part of the VERA organisation. However, they need to demonstrate the necessary experience and knowledge regarding the areas in which they conduct tests.
The International acceptance of a VERA Verification Statement is founded on the VERA test protocols. The protocols are developed by international experts and give a thorough description of regulations and recommendations for implementing tests and reporting the results. When a technology has been tested according to the relevant test protocol, a VERA Verification Statement can be obtained based on its environmental efficiency and operational stability. The test protocols then provides reliable and comparable information about the performance of new technologies to farmers, authorities and other stakeholders.
VERA has a protocol to test odour reduction efficiency in Air Cleaning Technologies. The technologies are defined as air purifying or air treatment systems, which are connected to force-ventilated animal housing systems.
Basically, the international VERA-test is performed on two farm sites, when possible, from different countries. The test facilities of both installations shall be representative in terms of unit size, feeding regimes and ventilation rates. For odour performance, a detailed protocol is laid out.
| Sampling/ parameters | Requirement | |
|---|---|---|
| Test location A | Test location B | |
| Sampling period 1 | ≥ 8 weeks summer conditions (continuously) ≥ 8 weeks winter conditions (continuously). |
Identical to location A. |
| Sampling points | Simultaneously sampling of inlet and outlet air. |
Identical to location A. |
| Measurement parameters | ||
| Odour, concentration | Weekly, 2 samples per day, sampling period minimum 30 minutes (one sample per day is enough if the sampling time is 120 minutes). |
Identical to location A but sampling on 4 Sampling days equally spread over the |
| Odour, characteristics | Samples have to be analyzed in terms of kind of odour (pig smell, earthy etc.)2 |
No odour characterization. |
1 Summer conditions: ventilation rate > 80% of maximum ventilation rate. Winter conditions: daily average of ventilation rate shall be low and below 30% of maximum ventilation rate. A minimum of two month interval in between the summer and winter measurements is required.
2 To define the specific odour of pig or poultry a team of test persons skilled according to EN 13725 is appointed. The team has to be trained to process-typical odours resulting in qualified yes/no statement about the process-typical odour during the olfactometry measurement.
Although the VERA certification system is focused in the agricultural sector, it can be also applied in any piece of equipment designed for odour abatement in any sector. The VERA certification is a very exhaustive method of certification to the point that it is necessary to take at least 104 olfactometric samples to check the efficiency of an abatement method.
If you find this article interesting, you might be also interested in these articles.
- Netherlands Regulation containing the determination of odour emission factors, minimum distances for fur-bearing animals, the method of calculating odour intensity and of the method of determining distances.
- Netherlands Regulations with regard to odour nuisance caused by animal accommodation used in livestock farming (Odour Nuisance and Livestock Farming Act).
- Managing the impact of odour emissions from livestock activities.
- Estimating Odour Nuisance From a Conventional Swine Farm
- Odours in the Environment, a different kind of conference organised by the Association of German Engineers VDI.
