Composting of Swine Manure Using Autoclaved Lightweight Concrete as a Bulking Agent

규산질다공체를 이용한 돈분 퇴비화에 관한 연구

Sawdust is commonly used as a bulking agent for livestock manure composting. Nowadays, demand of sawdust for composting is increasing, so its price is very high and not easy to obtain. In this study in order to examine the effect of autoclaved lightweight concrete (ALC, one of the industrial wastes) on composting of swine manure, ALC (each size of 2, 4, an 8mm) was used as a bulking agent. Swine manure was mixed with each of sawdust and 8mm of ALC in a 1:1 ratio by volume and 2, 4mm of ALC was mixed in a 2:1 ratio by volume. The total period lasted 50 days and was divided into two periods. After mixing bulking agent with swine manure, they were left undisturbed to compost with aeration for an initial period of 20 days. At the end of this period, they were decomposed and mixed to effect a homogenization and then a second period of composting (without aeration) was conducted for 30 days. Temperature during the initial period of swine manure composting were above 70$^{\circ}C$ in all piles and maintained above 55$^{\circ}C$ for 5 days. Temperatures during the second period were relatively lower than the initial period. pH of the compost was increased during the initial period and after 50 days it reached 9.08 in sawdust pile and 9.03 in ALC pile ( 2mm). In nitrogen content of final compost, sawdust pile was higher than ALC piles by 21∼29%.