J.A. Alburquerque

Composting of animal manures and chemical criteria for compost maturity assessment. A review.

New livestock production systems, based on intensification in large farms, produce huge amount of manures and slurries without enough agricultural land for their direct application as fertilisers. Composting is increasingly considered a good way for recycling the surplus of manure as a stabilised and sanitised end-product for agriculture, and much research work has been carried out in the last decade. However, high quality compost should be produced to overcome the cost of composting. In order to provide and review the information found in the literature about manure composting, the first part of this paper explains the basic concepts of the composting process and how manure characteristics can influence its performance. Then, a summary of those factors such as nitrogen losses (which directly reduce the nutrient content), organic matter humification and compost maturity which affect the quality of composts produced by manure composting is presented. Special attention has been paid to the relevance of using an adequate bulking agent for reducing N-losses and the necessity of standardising the maturity indices due to their great importance amongst compost quality criteria.

Biochar accelerates organic matter degradation and enhances N mineralisation during composting of poultry manure without a relevant impact on gas emissions

A composting study was performed to assess the impact of biochar addition to a mixture of poultry manure and barley straw. Two treatments: control (78% poultry manure + 22% barley straw, dry weight) and the same mixture amended with biochar (3% dry weight), were composted in duplicated windrows during 19 weeks. Typical monitoring parameters and gaseous emissions (CO2, CO, CH4, N2O and H2S) were evaluated during the process as well as the agronomical quality of the end-products. Biochar accelerated organic matter degradation and ammonium formation during the thermophilic phase and enhanced nitrification during the maturation phase. Our results suggest that biochar, as composting additive, improved the physical properties of the mixture by preventing the formation of clumps larger than 70 mm. It favoured microbiological activity without a relevant impact on N losses and gaseous emissions. It was estimated that biochar addition at 3% could reduce the composting time by 20%.

Evaluation of “alperujo” composting based on organic matter degradation, humification and compost quality

The main by-product generated by the Spanish olive oil industry, a wet solid lignocellulosic material called “alperujo” (AL), was evaluated as a composting substrate by using different aeration strategies and bulking agents. The experiments showed that composting performance was mainly influenced by the type of bulking agent added, and by the number of mechanical turnings. The bulking agents tested in this study were cotton waste, grape stalk, a fresh cow bedding and olive leaf; the latter showed the worse performance. Forced ventilation alone was revealed to work inadequately in most of the experiments. The composting process involved a substantial degradation of the organic substrate with average losses of 48.4, 28.6, 53.7 and 57.0% for total organic matter, lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose, respectively. Both organic matter biodegradation and humification were greatly influenced by the lignocellulosic nature of the starting material, which led to low organic matter and nitrogen loss rates and a progressive increase in more humified substances, as revealed by the end-values of the humification indices. The resulting composts were of good quality in terms of nutrient content, stabilised and non-phytotoxic organic matter and low heavy metal content. This demonstrates that composting technology can be used as an alternative treatment method to turn AL into compost that can be used as organic amendments or fertilisers for agricultural systems.

Soil C and N mineralisation and agricultural value of the products of an anaerobic digestion system

Anaerobic digestion is currently considered a valuable technology for recycling of cattle slurry due to the production of biogas, a renewable source of energy. However, an appropriate management of the waste generated from anaerobic co-digestion of cattle slurry (digestate) is needed for the sustainability of the process. This paper shows the effects provoked on soil C and N mineralisation processes and on microbial biomass due to the addition of the digestate, the liquid and solid fractions obtained after separation of the digestate and the composted solid fraction of the digestate, in comparison with the effects of the non-digested cattle slurry. Composting was a very effective way of recycling the digestate, producing highly stable (mineralised-C reached only 3% of the added total organic-C) and hygienised material with an elevated fertilising potential (the net-N mineralisation accounted for 2% of total-N from compost). The agricultural use of cattle slurry, the digestate and the separated fractions should take into account their effects on soil C and N cycles: high decomposition rate (ranging from 25% to 50% of total organic-C) and partial N immobilisation in the soil.

Biochar improves N cycling during composting of olive mill wastes and sheep manure

The use of biochar has been revealed to have beneficial effects during the composting of manures and other N-rich materials by reducing N losses and enhancing the rate of the process. However, the impact of biochar has not been explored in other complex organic matrices with low N nitrogen that may hinder the composting process. The main novelty of this work was to study the impact of a small amount of biochar (4%) on the composting process of olive mill wastes, which are characterised by a recalcitrant lignocellulosic composition with reduced nitrogen (N) availability. Two treatments: (i) control (olive mill waste 46%+sheep manure 54%, dry weight) and (ii) the same mixture treated with biochar (4%), were composted during 31 weeks. The incorporation of a small amount of biochar improved N cycling by increasing NO3(-)-N content, indicating a higher nitrifying activity, and reducing N losses by 15% without affecting the amount of N2O released. The use of biochar as an additive for composting could improve the value of olive mill waste composts by reducing N losses and increasing N availability in lignocellulosic and N-poor materials.

Implications of the use of As-rich groundwater for agricultural purposes and the effects of soil amendments on as solubility.

An agricultural site in Segovia province (Spain) contains high levels of arsenic (As) of geological origin in its groundwater, which is used intensively for irrigation. Crops, irrigation waters, and soils were analyzed to evaluate the occurrence of As in this area and its potential impact on the food chain. High As mobility was found in the agricultural soils, related to the application of As in the irrigation waters (14.8-280 μg As L(-1)) and the general alkaline and sandy character of these soils, which imposes a low capacity for As sorption and therefore enhances plant uptake. The use of amendments can also affect the solubility of As in these soils. Evidence for this was evaluated based on a study of the effect of organic (compost) and inorganic (iron oxides-rich rolling mill scale and phosphate fertilizer) amendments. Arsenic solubility in soil and plant uptake were high, but not significantly affected by organic matter or phosphate addition, while As immobilization was associated with addition of iron oxides with the rolling mill scale, although this did not result in a decrease of As uptake by the tested plants.

High concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (naphthalene, phenanthrene and pyrene) failed to explain biochar's capacity to reduce soil nitrous oxide emissions

The presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) has been postulated as a mechanism by which biochar might mitigate N(2)O emissions. We studied whether and to what extent N(2)O emissions were influenced by the three most abundant PAHs in biochar: naphthalene, phenanthrene and pyrene. We hypothesised that biochars contaminated with PAHs would show a larger N(2)O mitigation capacity and that increasing PAH concentrations in biochar would lead to higher mitigation potentials. Our results demonstrate that the high-temperature biochar (550 °C) had a higher capacity to mitigate soil N(2)O emissions than the low-temperature biochar (350 °C). At low PAH concentrations, PAHs do not significantly contribute to the reductions in soil N(2)O emissions; while biochar stimulated soil N(2)O emissions when it was spiked with high concentrations of PAHs. This study suggests that the impact of biochar on soil N(2)O emissions is due to other compositional and/or structural properties of biochar rather than to PAH concentration.