Odor emission and microbial community succession during biogas residue composting covered with a molecular membrane
Introduction
In China, the amount of livestock and poultry manure has reached 3.8 billion tons every year (Wang et al., 2017). Anaerobic digestion is an environmentally sustainable technique that can be used to treat livestock manure. The biogas residue produced by anaerobic digestion after solid–liquid separation is rich in organic matter (OM), nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and other nutrients (Tambone et al., 2010). However, the characteristic of biogas residue differs significantly from fresh organic solid waste, with most of the organic matter being partially stabilized and more nitrogen in the form of NH4+-N. Meanwhile, direct application of biogas residue without composting causes damage to the plant (Abubaker et al., 2012). Many researchers have found that composting not only can degrade organic pollutants, such as antibiotics and hormones but also reduce the bioavailability of heavy metals (Singh and Kalamdhad, 2012). Previous studies have demonstrated that increasing the temperature of compost can accelerate the humification process and shorten the fermentation period (Yamada et al., 2007). Moreover, high temperature can also kill pathogens and weed seeds in compost and enable the fertilizer to reach the harmless standard.
However, a large amount of malodorous gases are often released during composting, and the main components of odor are ammonia (NH3), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and volatile organic compounds. Previous studies have shown that ammonia is the main component of odor in compost (Kithome et al., 1999). The main measures for odor control in composting include adding additives, biological deodorization, and covering treatment (Ding et al., 2019). Some commonly used additives include zeolite, biochar, bentonite, and superphosphate. Awasthi et al. (2017) reported that biochar addition could significantly reduce NH3 emission by 58.03%–65.17%. Yuan et al. (2018) found that adding superphosphate and dicyandiamide can reduce NH3 emission by 12.3%. The main processes of biological deodorization are including biological filtration, biological washing, and biological drip filtration method. Among them, the removal rate of NH3 by biological filtration method was the highest (Busca and Pistarino, 2003), generally at 95% to 98%. Studies on odor treatment by membrane covering are relatively few. Sun et al. (2018) studied the membrane-covered aerobic composting and analyzed NH3 emissions, the results showed that the NH3 emissions decreased by 20%-30%, because the water film formed under the membrane could absorb ammonia and return them to the compost pile. The membrane covering treatment changes a series of physical and chemical indicators in the compost pile, which affects the growth activities of the bacteria in the compost. Moreover, microbial activity plays a key role in the OM transformation in the compost. Ammonification bacteria affect the ammonia emission in the compost, denitrifying bacteria are most active in the thermophilic phase, and nitrifying bacteria generally begin to increase in the maturation phase of the compost. These microorganisms are sensitive to environmental changes (Ma et al., 2018). Nevertheless, little information has been reported about odor emission and microbial community succession in the molecular membrane composting system.
In this experiment, a functional molecular membrane was used as covering material, a forced ventilation system was utilized to supply oxygen, a comparative treatment of covering and non-covering composting system was set up, and the changes of microbial flora in the fermentation process of the two compost piles were combined to study the effect of membrane covered system on odor emission reduction during composting.
Section snippets
Membrane-covered composting system
A membrane-covered forced ventilation composting system was used in the experiments at the composting plant of Nanjing Tech University. The critical feature of the semi-permeable membrane was divided into three layers, where the middle layer was composed of ePTFE, and the pore size was 0.2 μm and the inner and outer layers were made of polyester membrane with anti-ultraviolet and anti-corrosion characteristics. The membrane had the functions of being waterproof, windproof, and permeable to
Physical and chemical properties of compost
Temperature is the key index of microbial activity in the composting process (Külcü and Yaldiz, 2014). The temperature of the two compost piles rose rapidly to above 50 °C within 7–9 days (Fig. 1A). In the thermophilic phase, the highest temperatures of CT and CK groups reached 54.25 °C and 53.75 °C, respectively, and maintained for 24 and 22 days. The rapid increase in temperature promoted the release of heat from microbial respiration and the rapid degradation of OM (Bernal et al., 2009).
Conclusion
Membrane-covered composting system effectively preserved the nitrogen and reduced the release of odor during composting. The nitrogen preservation rate of the CT group was increased by 17.27% compared with the control. The NH3 and H2S emission decreased by 58.64% and 38.13% in the CT group compared with the control. Microbial analysis showed that the average abundance and co-occurrence rate of ammonification bacteria dominated by Pseudomonas and Bacillus in the CT group were lower than those in
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFD1100603, 2016YFE0112800), the Key Research and Development Technology of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (2019BFH02008), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21777069), and the Jiangsu Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Bio-Manufacture (XTE1832).
References (44)
- et al.
Biogas residues as fertilisers – Effects on wheat growth and soil microbial activities
Appl. Energy
(2012) - et al.
Development and analysis of microbial characteristics of an acidulocomposting system for the treatment of garbage and cattle manure
J. Biosci. Bioeng.
(2010) - et al.
Heterogeneity of biochar amendment to improve the carbon and nitrogen sequestration through reduce the greenhouse gases emissions during sewage sludge composting
Bioresour. Technol.
(2017) - et al.
Composting of animal manures and chemical criteria for compost maturity assessment. A review
Bioresour. Technol.
(2009) - et al.
Abatement of ammonia and amines from waste gases: a summary
J. Loss Prev. Process Ind.
(2003) - et al.
H2S generation in a reclaimed urban wastewater pipe. Case study: Tenerife (Spain)
Water Res.
(1999) - et al.
Patterns and quantities of NH3, N2O and CH4 emissions during swine manure composting without forced aeration–effect of compost pile scale
Bioresour. Technol.
(2003) - et al.
Effects of struvite formation and nitratation promotion on nitrogenous emissions such as NH3, N2O and NO during swine manure composting
Bioresour. Technol.
(2011) - et al.
Evolution of the composting process with semi-permeable film technology at industrial scale
J. Cleaner Prod.
(2016) - et al.
Decreased enzyme activities, ammonification rate and ammonifiers contribute to higher nitrogen retention in hyperthermophilic pretreatment composting
Bioresour. Technol.
(2019)
The composting of agricultural wastes and the new parameter for the assessment of the process
Ecol. Eng.
Effect of temperature on thermophilic composting of aquaculture sludge: NH3 recovery, nitrogen mass balance, and microbial community dynamics
Bioresour. Technol.
Anaerobic oxidation of methane coupled to sulfate reduction: Consortium characteristics and application in co-removal of H2S and methane
J. Environ. Sci.
Bacterial community succession during pig manure and wheat straw aerobic composting covered with a semi-permeable membrane under slight positive pressure
Bioresour. Technol.
Water extracts of fresh and mature farmyard manure
Biol. Wastes
Correlation of bacterial communities supported by different organic materials with sulfate reduction in metal-rich landfill leachate
Water Res.
Concentration and speciation of heavy metals during water hyacinth composting
Bioresour. Technol.
The effect of a semi-permeable membrane-covered composting system on greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions in the Tibetan Plateau
J. Cleaner Prod.
Assessing key microbial communities determining nitrogen transformation in composting of cow manure using illumina high-throughput sequencing
Waste Manage.
Assessing amendment and fertilizing properties of digestates from anaerobic digestion through a comparative study with digested sludge and compost
Chemosphere
Effect of pine bark and compost on the biological denitrification process of non-hazardous landfill leachate: Focus on the microbiology
J. Hazard. Mater.
Metagenomic analysis of microbial consortia enriched from compost: new insights into the role of Actinobacteria in lignocellulose decomposition
Biotechnol. Biofuels
Cited by (112)
Synergistic effects of chemical additives and mature compost on reducing H<inf>2</inf>S emission during kitchen waste composting
2024, Journal of Environmental Sciences (China)Influencing factors on nitrite removal by bagasse bioflocs and the succession of attached microbial communities
2024, Journal of Water Process EngineeringContribution of sulfur-containing precursors to release of hydrogen sulfide in sludge composting
2024, Journal of Environmental ManagementComposting municipal solid waste and animal manure in response to the current fertilizer crisis - a recent review
2024, Science of the Total Environment