In this paper an optimum design of a lab-scale biofilter for absorbing ammonia has been proposed and analyzed. This biofilter is using pine chaff and wood shaving as filter materials. It is assumed that the biofilter can be used as a storage tank of swine manure slurry or swine stall. To evaluate the biofilter performance, the ammonia, mainly offensive odor ingredient, was measured. Swine compost was mixed with filter materials in ratio of 1:1 on weight base. Each test continued for 20 days. The ammonia emissions were reduced by 97.9% and 98.3% in case of using biofilter filled with pine chaff and compost, and wood shaving and compost, respectively. The system was tested with and without adding compost. It was found that the biofilter with wood shaving and compost has an ammonia removal efficiency of 94.1%, while biofilter with wood shaving only has 85.3%. The biofilter with wood shaving and compost showed 8.8% higher removal efficiency than that of wood shaving only. By mixing the compost, the number of microorganism was found to be about 2.3 times more than that of wood shaving only. Therefore it can be concluded that adding compost has a positive effect on the formation of microorganism.