• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.102-113
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• 2000

This study was conducted to investigate the expandibility of sludge treatment by earthworm through real scale experiment and the optimum counter-plan for organic sludge treatment. For the purposes, sludge removal efficienciesof night-soil using earthworm and it's behavior according to the transplanting methods of the earthworm on non-cover worm bed or in the green house worm bed were compared. Sludge uptake rates on non-cover worm bed for 6 months were $0.27{\sim}0.33ton/m^2$ and the excrement of earthworm yields $0.15ton/m^2$(44.1~46.7% of raw night soil sludge dosage). These results were not much different from the worm bed in the green house. The average and maximum earthworm density were about $6.5kg/m^2$ and $7kg/m^2$ respectively on the non-cover worm bed. The density of the worm bed was comparatively higher in spring and fall terms but lower in summer. The amount of old earthworm was much plenty than young earthworm on the non-cover worm bed, resulting in reverse distribution type of pyramid. From the experiments on non-cover worm bed(7,000 pyeong)and in the green house worm bed(1,200 pyeong), it was concluded that landfill and transporting cost could be reduced when the earthworm was applied for the night-soil sludge treatment. Profits from the excrement sale of earthworm was 9,600,000 won. Through this study, it was founded that earthworm treatment method for organic sludge are much more environmentally sound than landfill treatment.