Preliminary Study of the Effect of Continuous and Intermittent Aeration on Composting Hog Manure Amended With Sawdust |
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| Authors: | J H Hong H M Keener D L Elwell |
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| Institution: | 1. Agricultural Machinery Engineering Sunchon National University, Sunchon, Korea;2. Department of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering, The Ohio State University, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, Wooster, Ohio |
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| Abstract: | The effects of using intermittent aeration during composting on ammonia emissions and dry matter loss were determined during composting of hog manure amended with sawdust. Composting trials lasted three weeks and used pilot-scale 200 liter vessels (four). The experimental design used replication of two treatments, continuous aeration (CA) and intermittent aeration (IA), in two series of experiments (total of eight tests). In the CA sequence, compost temperatures were controlled at 60°C using feedback control on high and low air flow fans while the IA sequence consisted of five minutes of air flow followed by 55 minutes of rest. Mixing ratios of hog manure to sawdust were 1:1.1 and 1:1.7 dry weight basis with resulting C:N ratios of 18.2 ± 1.2 and 23.7 ± 2.2 for the two series of tests. Airflow reduction was 63 percent for IA compared to CA. Percent nitrogen loss between treatments were moderately statistically different (α = 0.14) with average percent nitrogen loss at 29.7 percent for CA and 23.0 percent for IA. Nitrogen loss as ammonia-N was higher for CA than IA (25.9 versus 14.3) but was not statistically different. No significant differences existed in dry solids loss between treatments and the physical and chemical properties of the compost produced from IA were similar to that from CA for each series. Results showed that IA compared to CA may be a practical way to reduce nitrogen loss and ammonia emissions during composting of swine manure with sawdust. |
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