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Session- Novel Composting Techniques & Feedstocks

 

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Economic Potentials of Oil Palm Bunch Refuse

 

AISUENI, NAPOLEON O.

 

NIGERIAN INSTITUTE FOR OIL PALM RESEARCH (NIFOR), Nigeria

 

One of the agricultural wastes commonly generated in Nigeria is the Oil Palm Bunch Refuse. This is because the country before 1965 was the foremost leader in World Oil Palm production and export before she relinquished it to Malaysia and Indonesia. She is still the worlds third largest producer and clearly the largest producer in Africa. The oil palm waste, which has been estimated from this industry at about seven million metric tones annually, is yet to be harnessed for the production of organic manures and agricultural development generally. The estimate was based on the total oil palm hectare of the country, its yield potential of fresh fruit bunches (F.F.B) and percentage fruit components in terms of Oil, Kernel and Bunch refuse. With the coming of small-scale palm oil processing mills, some processors now take the fruits to the cities for processing thereby increasing the waste problem of the city. These wastes, which are often disposed off at great cost to government, are usually done with no consideration for the economic gains it could bring to the city and the state in general which prompted this investigation. The waste were then composted with and without palm oil mill effluent (POME) commonly discharged during fruit processing. Some of the procedures involved the addition of supplementary N either as poultry droppings (10%) or the urea to reduce Carbon/Nitrogen ratio and microbial activity during the composting phase. These were cured after composting, processed and characterized with compost recovery rate of 61%. The chemical characteristics obtained was PH 8.3 N (2.8%), P (1.44%), K(3.52%), Ca(1.90%),and Mg (0.95%). These nutrients translated into 120 tons of N.619 tons P, 151 tons K, 82 tons Ca and 41 tons Mg with fertilizer equivalents in terms of 50kg bags of assorted fertilizers (N, P, K, Ca, and Mg) amounting to 17.6 and 30.5 million 50kg bags of fertilizers. These bags of fertilizers, cost 10 U.S Dollars at current market price per bag and amounted to between 176 and 305 million U.S Dollars which is a very significant contribution to the nations economy.  Since the compost is environmentally friendly, capable of sustaining the fertility of agricultural soils and reducing dependence on fossil fuel for the manufacture of inorganic fertilizers composting for economic growth could be encouraged in Nigeria.

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Quality of the Compost After Codisposal of Solid Waste of the Tanning Industry

 

ANDR‰ L.F.BRITO (1), Ana C.S. Muniz (1) Shiva Prasad (1), Valder­ D. Leite (2)

 

(1) Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Federal University of Para­ba; (2) Dept. of Chemistry, State University of Para­ba., Brazil

 

Solid waste of tanning industry have been a problem of management in the industry due to difficulty in its removal from the industrial area and to find a place for disposal. The solid waste from shaving and buffing machines of tannery is more prominent as it represents 20 to 46% of all the solid waste generated by the industry. The solid waste studied in this work was from chrome tanned leather from the shaving and buffing machines of National Technological Center for Leather and Footwear (CTCC-UFPB/SENAI agreement) and urban solid waste collected from Paraiba Company for Agricultural Supplies and Services, located in Campina Grande city, Brazil. The codisposal process in composting piles using putrescible organic fraction of urban solid waste and solid waste of the tanning industry has been studied.  The solid waste of the tanning industry weight percentages used were A (5%), B (10%) and C (15%), making up three different experimental treatments, each in triplicate, besides one control pile used just for putrescible organic fraction of the urban solid waste. Data analysis revealed that total carbon transformation efficiency for a period of monitoration of 135 days, was inversely linear to the percentage of the solid waste of the tanning industry applied, occurring similar behavior in relation to attenuation efficiency of total chromium. The quality of compost formed in treatment A was: Cr (2.5 g/kg), TNK ( 3.5 %) and TVS(73.78%).

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Pulp and Paper Industry Byproducts Composting: Process Development and Implementation

 

K.C. DAS (1), E.W. TOLLNER (1), T.G. TORNABENE (2)

 

(1) The University of Georgia, Athens GA 30602, (2) Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

 

Pulp and paper production is a major forest products industry in Georgia.  Manufacture of pulp or paper results in the production of several organic byproducts such as wood yard debris, bark, log flume grit, sludge, etc.  A three-year research cooperation between The University of Georgia Bioconversion Program and the Georgia Paper Industry identified the easily compostable components of the industry solid waste streams.  Research was conducted to identify various optimal composting processes, easily available amendments and their effectiveness, and quality of the final product of composting from different mills using different manufacturing processes. In one case the results obtained were scaled up to a full-scale, on-site operation that was conducted over a period of 18 months.  Results indicate that components within the industry's waste streams could be blended at defined ratios to produce a stable, nutrient rich, organic amendment. The products were tested in industry tree farms and in mine land reclamation in central Georgia. This presentation will cover the details of the complete three-year project including byproduct characterization, process design and development, and product testing.