The impact of the addition of natural materials on the composting of animal manure

Abstract

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License In this study we investigated the microbiological and chemical parameters during the composting of different substrates. Composting of two types of substrates amended with natural materials, manure mixed with zeolite (S1) and manure mixed with zeolite and lime (S2), was investigated and compared with that in the amendment-free substrate (C). During the composting the counts of coliform and faecal coliform bacteria in S2 and C differred significantly (P <0.001). There were also significant differences in coliform and faecal coliform bacterial counts between substrates S1 and S2 (P >0.01 and P >0.05, resp.). The total bacterial counts in C, S1 and S2 showed no significant differences throughout the composting (P >0.05). Degradation of organic matter was significantly increased in S2 compared to C (P <0.001) due to relatively rapid decomposition of organic matter by microorganisms in this substrate. Determination of chemical parameters also showed significant differences between individual substrates. The pH level in S2 was higher and varied from 9.16 to 7.99. Release of N-NH 4 + from S2 substrate was significantly reduced. The total nitrogen (N t) content in S2 substrate was increased by 45.01% compared to the other two substrates and resulted in a decreased C/N ratio towards the end of composting. Our results indicated that composting of manure amended with natural material provided promising results and has a potential for implementation in practice.