Effects of biomaterial on ammonia recovery during swine manure composting

Abstract. Ammonia volatilization during manure composting poses serious problems to surrounding environment, and also leads to nutrient loss of compost. This study is conducted to look at a practical method for ammonia mitigation. A 3.90mL×3.45mW×1.10mH mixture of swine manure and corn stalk was made and exposed to 4-stage aerated static composting. During the 28 d aerobic fermentation, air volatilized from the composting mixture was collected and delivered to a finished compost pile with size of 3.53mL×1.83mW×0.84mH for deodorization, ammonia concentrations of air above composting mixture and the absorbent were monitored. Result showed that ammonia volatilization accounted for 28.0%, 30.3%, 24.6% and 17.1% for the 4 weeks, respectively, and the corresponding recovery rate of the finished compost were 97.4%, 98.1%, 98.7% and 99.1% for the 4 weeks, respectively. The nitrogen content of the absorbent increased by 9.1% after 4-w deodorization, which implied a better quality of absorbent. Therefore, finished compost could effectively recover ammonia from the volatilized air, which can be applied for manure composting deodorization.