TECHNICAL AND ECONOMICAL STUDY FOR COMPOSTING AERATION UNDER EGYPTIAN CONDITIONS

Ewida, E. H.; El Awady, M. N.; Kamel, O. M.; Geneady, M. A.; El-Berdiney, M.

doi:10.21608/mjae.2020.110167

TECHNICAL AND ECONOMICAL STUDY FOR COMPOSTING AERATION UNDER EGYPTIAN CONDITIONS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Master student in Ag. Eng., Ain-Shams Univ., Egypt.

² Prof. Emt. of Ag. Eng., Ain-Shams Univ., Egypt.

³ Peputy Min, MOALR., Egypt.

⁴ Assoc. Prof. of Ag. Eng, Ain-Shams Univ., Egypt.

⁵ Assoc. Prof. of Soil Science, Col. Ag.,Ain-Shams Univ., Egypt.

10.21608/mjae.2020.110167

Abstract

Livestock manure, amended with rice straw, was composted by: natural aeration (NA), passive aeration with corn stalks (PA), and agitation (Agi). For each method, one composting pile was built and monitored from Feb. to Aug. 2007. The compost piles had initial volume of 4.5m³ and 1.5m height. Temperature profiles of replicated positions showed a high degree of similarity suggesting that the raw compost was uniform and the process was reproducible. The results showed that for the selected configuration of aeration and agitation schedule. PA(1) had a higher process rate than NA, (2) provided adequate oxygen without the adverse effect of cooling as observed in the case of Agi, (3) maintained high temperatures for a longer maturation than the other two methods, (4) the final properties of compost were different in C/N, pH, EC, N, P, K, O.C, O.M from other treatments. Generally the results showed that using any of these compost treatments produced good quality compost, but both of PA and NA are less expensive than Agi.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Biosystems Engineering

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