Kook-Sik Shin

Effects of substrate to inoculum ratio on the biochemical methane potential of piggery slaughterhouse wastes.

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of substrate to inoculum ratio (S/I ratio) on the biochemical methane potential (BMP) and anaerobic biodegradability (Ddeg) of different piggery slaughterhouse wastes, such as piggery blood, intestine residue, and digestive tract content. These wastes were sampled from a piggery slaughterhouse located in Kimje, South Korea. Cumulative methane production curves for the wastes were obtained from the anaerobic batch fermentation having different S/I ratios of 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5. BMP and anaerobic biodegradabilities (Ddeg) of the wastes were calculated from cumulative methane production data for the tested conditions. At the lowest S/I ration of 0.1, BMPs of piggery blood, intestine residue, and digestive tract content were determined to be 0.799, 0.848, and 1.076 Nm3 kg−1-VSadded, respectively, which were above the theoretical methane potentials of 0.539, 0.644, and 0.517 Nm3 kg−1-VSadded for blood, intestine residue, and digestive tract content, respectively. However, BMPs obtained from the higher S/I ratios of 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 were within the theoretical range for all three types of waste and were not significantly different for the different S/I ratios tested. Anaerobic biodegradabilities calculated from BMP data showed a similar tendency. These results imply that, for BMP assay in an anaerobic reactor, the S/I ratio of anaerobic reactor should be above 0.1 and the inoculum should be sufficiently stabilized to avoid further degradation during the assay.

Biochemical Methane Potential of Agricultural Waste Biomass

Recently, anaerobic methane production of agricultural waste biomass has received increasing attention. Until now domestic BMP (Biochemical methane potential) studies concerned with agricultural waste biomass have concentrated on the several waste biomass such as livestock manure, food waste, and sewage sludge from WWTP (Waste water treatment plant). Especially, the lack of standardization study of BMP assay method has caused the confused comprehension and interpretation in the comparison of BMP results from various researchers. Germany and USA had established the standard methods, VDI 4630 and ASTM E2170-01, for the analysis of BMP and anaerobic organic degradation, respectively. In this review, BMP was defined in the aspect of organic material represented as COD (Chemical oxygen demand) and VS (Volatile solid), and the influence of several parameters on the methane potential of the feedstock was presented. In the investigation of domestic BMP case studies, BMP results of 18 biomass species generating from agriculture and agro-industry were presented. And BMP results of crop species reported from foreign case studies were presented according to the classification system of crops such as food crop, vegetables, oil seed and specialty crop, orchards, and fodder and energy crop. This review emphasizes the urgent need for characterizing the innumerable kind of biomass by their capability on methane production. Key words:

Effect of Soil Salinity on Nitrogen Mineralization of Livestock Manure Compost in Salt-Affected Coastal Soils

We conducted a short-term incubation experiment in order to understand the effect of the salinity of reclaimed coastal soils on nitrogen mineralization of livestock manure compost (LMC). Two soils with the same soil texture but different EC levels were collected from the same field. These samples were treated with 0%, 1%, 2%, and 3% of LMC by weight basis and incubated at 25°C to observe changes in inorganic N contents, pH, and dehydrogenase activity with respect to time. As a result, regardless of the soil EC level, as the LMC increased, the total content of the inorganic N (NH₄ + + NO 3- ) increased. Difference in the soil EC level did not affect N mineralization of LMC greatly. The soil EC had negligible effect on the dehydrgenase activity as with the case of inorganic nitrogen. The NH₄ + contents remained very low throughout the experimental period starting from the first week of incubation. We believe this is due to the high pH level (pH 7.9 and pH 8.3) of the original soils leading to ammonia volatilization. On the other hand the NO 3- content maintained high level as the LMC treatment level increased and reached maximum at the third week. The pH of the soil during incubation period decreased as the NO 3- contents increased and increased slightly after three weeks. The rise of pH level is believed to be from the NO 3- absorption for immobilization by microbes. In conclusion, the high soil EC 1:5 level of 12 dS m -1 conducted in this experiment did not affect the growth in terms of soil microbes involved in N mineralization of LMC.

Comparison of Soil Pore Properties between Anthropogenic and Natural Paddy Field Soils From Computed Tomographic Images

Human influence on soil formation has dramatically increased with human civilization and industry development. Increase of anthropogenic soils induced researches on the anthropogenic soils; classification, chemical and physical characteristics of anthropogenic soils and plant growth from anthropogenic soils. However there have been no comprehensive analyses on soil pore or physical properties of anthropogenic soils from 3 dimensional images in Korea. The objectives of this study were to characterize physical properties of anthropogenic paddy field soils by depth and to find differences between natural and anthropogenic paddy field soils. Soil samples were taken from two anthropogenic and natural paddy field soils; anthropogenic (A_c) and natural (N_c) paddy soils with topsoil of coarse texture and anthropogenic (A_f) and natural (N_f) paddy soils with topsoil of fine texture. The anthropogenic paddy fields were reestablished during the Arable Land Remodeling Project from 2011 to 2012 and continued rice farming after the project. Natural paddy fields had no artificial changes or disturbance in soil layers up to 1m depth. Samples were taken at three different depths and analyzed for routine physical properties (texture, bulk density, etc.) and pore properties with computer tomography (CT) scans. The CT scan provided 3 dimensional images at resolution of 0.01 mm to calculate pore radius size, length, and tortuosity of soil pores. Fractal and configuration entropy analyses were applied to quantify pore structure and analyze spatial distribution of pores within soil images. The results of measured physical properties showed no clear trend or significant differences across depths or sites from all samples, except the properties from topsoils. The results of pore morphology and spatial distribution analyses provided detailed information of pores affected by human influences. Pore length and size showed significant decrease in anthropogenic soils. Especially, pores of A_c had great decrease in length compared to N_c. Fractal and entropy analyses showed clear changes of pore distributions across sites. The topsoil layer of A_c showed more degradation of pore structure than that of N_c, while pores of A_f topsoil did not show significant degradation compared with those of N_f. These results concluded that anthropogenic soils with coarse texture may have more effects on pore properties than ones with fine texture. The reestablished paddy fields may need more fundamental remediation to improve physical conditions.

Biochemical Methane Potential of Agricultural Byproduct in Greenhouse Vegetable Crops

Number of crop residues generated at large amount in agriculture can be utilized as substrate in methane production by anaerobic digestion. Greenhouse vegetable crop cultivation that adopting intensive agricultural system require the heating energy during winter season, meanwhile produce waste biomass source for the methane production. The purpose of this study was to investigate the methane production potential of greenhouse vegetable crop residues and to estimate material and energy yield in greenhouse system. Cucumber, tomato, and paprika as greenhouse vegetable crop were used in this study. Fallen fruit, leaf, and stem residues were collected at harvesting period from the farmhouses (Anseong, Gyeonggi, Korea) adopting an intensive greenhouse cultivation system. Also the amount of fallen vegetables and plant residues, and planting density of each vegetable crop were investigated. Chemical properties of vegetable waste biomass were determined, and theoretical methane potentials were calculated using Buswells formula from the element analysis data. Also, BMP (Biochemical methane potential) assay was carried out for each vegetable waste biomass in mesophilic temperature (). Theoretical methane potential () and Ultimate methane potential () off stem, leaf, and fallen fruit in vegetable residues showed the range of and respectively. The biomass yields of residues of tomato, cucumber, and paprika were 28.3, 30.5, and respectively. The methane yields of tomato, cucumber, and paprika residues showed 645.0, 782.5, and . Methane yield () of crop residue may be highly influenced by biomass yield which is mainly affected by planting density.

Analysis of Catena on Representative Soils derived from Granite and Granite Gneiss

Soil catena can be characterized by some properties, such as drainage levels and soil textures. Characteristics of soil catena are different drainage levels from a summit to the direction of gravity and similar soil textures. Therefore this study was performed GIS (Geographic information system) and statistical analyses using perimeters from soil series in order to characterize quantitatively and objectively soil distributional properties in Korea. The total of 16 soil series from representative granite and granite gneiss originated soils were selected among inland soils from detailed soil maps (1:25,000 scale) in Rural Development Administration (RDA) and analyzed. After the detailed soil maps were merged by soil series unit, perimeters were measured from one soil series to neighboring soil series using functions of table join, merge, dissolve, buffer, and clip in ArcGIS (10.1). The covering ratio of each soil series unit was calculated from neighboring perimeters by soil series and applied to clustering analysis. Soils that were analyzed were the total of 16 soil series; 7 of sandy loam and 9 of clay loam. As a result, analyzed soil series adjoined complicatedly such as Hyocheon series adjoined 26 series and Jisan did 276 series. The results of the clustering analysis showed that soils were clustered by soil textures except a few soil series. This study applied only one property that was a length of neighboring soil series to GIS and statistical analyses. These results were compared to existing soil groups that were classified by new-soil taxonomy, texture, soil type and drainage level. It showed that these analyses can provide soil characteristics by soil texture. Based on this study, there is a need to investigate further objectively and quantitatively in statistical analyses of soil series.

The Determination of Anaerobic Biodegradability Rates Livestock Byproducts Using Double First-Order Kinetic Model

This study investigated methane productions and a degradation rate of organic matters by German standard method, VDI4630 test. In this study, 4 livestock byproducts from livestock farm were selected for the investigation. The objective of this study was to estimate a distribution of organic matters by using the double first-order kinetics model in order to calculate the rate of biodegradable organic matters which degrade rapidly in the initial stage and the persistently biodegradable organic matters which degrade slowly later. As a result, all the byproducts applied in this study showed rapid decomposition in the initial stage. Then the decomposition rate began to slow down for a certain period and the rate became 5 times slower than the initial decomposition rate. This trend of decomposition rate changes is typical conditions of organic matter decompositions. The easily degradable factors (k 1 ) ranged between 0.145 ~ 0.257 day -1 and persistent degradable factors (k 2 ) were 0.027 ~ 0.080 day -1 . Among these results, greater organic matter decomposition rates from VDI4630 had greater k 1 values (0.257, 0.211 day -1 ) and smaller k2 values (0.027, 0.030 day -1 ) for dairy wastewater and forage byproduct, respectively.

A Study on Soil Characteristics of Paddy Fields with Re-established Soils

Six study sites in Gumi, Goryeong in Gyeongbuk province and Naju in Jeonnam province were selected to investigate soil properties of poorly drained horizons in paddy soils. The horizons were re-established layers which were parent material layers originated from fluvial deposits. Topsoil layers were differentiated from piled parent materials while soil structure of the topsoil layer was massive with striated microstructure. Compaction at soil re-establishment and a lack of structure and aggregate development in these soils may cause the limitation of vertical water movement and result in poorly drained horizons. Soil samples were taken from paddy fields with top soils of sandy loam, silt loam and silty clay loam and re-established soils of coarse and fine texture. The samples were taken from each horizon for the analyses of soil chemical and mineral properties. Soils with re-established soils of coarse texture had greater amounts of sands from top soil texture distributions, while soils with fine texture had greater amounts of silts. Chemical properties of top soils were analyzed from rice cultivated soils at the time of re-establishments and one year after the re-establishments. The coarse texture of the re-established horizons decreased in EC values from 0.23 to 0.11 (dS m -1 ), available phosphate values from 112 to 54 (mg kg -1 ), and exchangeable Ca values from 6.6 to 4.9 (cmolc kg -1 ). On the other hand, soils with fine texture showed decrease only in pH and exchangeable Ca values. Especially, organic matter and available phosphate contents showed heterogeneous distributions from each horizon. This result may be caused by mixture of plough layer and subsurface layer during and consolidation. Hydraulic conductivity values were low at the boundaries of top soil and parent material layers except SL/coarse soil. Soil microstructure was massive structure without soil clods or pores and showed striated structure. Therefore, re-established paddy fields with fluvial deposits as parent material layers showed limited vertical movements of soil water because of occurrence of compacted layers and less-development of soil clods and aggregates.

The Study on Soil Classification in Sri Lanka

Land information is important for the international agricultural companies. This study investigated the agriculture and soil information in Sri Lanka. This study is the results from investigation of soil properties and agricultural properties determined by the Soil Taxonomy classification system for the soils in Sri Lanka. The order of the main agricultural imports in Sri Lanka was wheat > refined Sugar > dry Onion > Rice > Lentils. The climate of Sri Lanka is divided into three climatic zones. There are a wet zone, an intermediate zone, and a dry zone. Rainfall of the wet zone was 3,000-5,000mm year -1 . The rainfall of the dry zone was less than 1,000m -1 . The intermediate zone was in the middle area. Soil series of Sri Lanka were 109 in total. Detailed information of soil series was: 6 of soil Orders, 15 of Suborders, 39 of Great groups, and 56 of Subgroups. Soil texture of topsoil was much more coarse, but subsoil was gravelly coarse soil. Soil of Sri Lanka was classified as a Soil Order. The orders were Entisols > Alfisols > Ultisols > Inceptisols > Histosols > Vertisols.

Classification of Anthropogenic Soil “Ingwan” Series

Korean soil classification system is based on the US soil taxonomy. This study aimed to understand and inform the soil taxonomy of 2010 and 2014 US soil classification systems. Ingwan series belonged to anthropogenic soil was classified to coarse loamy over sandy, mixed, mesic family of Aquic Udorthents based on the soil taxonomy of 2010 and coarse loamy over sandy, mixed, mesic family of Anthroportic Udorthents based on the soil taxonomy of 2014. An anthropogenic soil is increasing in Korea. Considering the domestic relationship depending on US soil taxonomy, it is important to be well-informed of the taxonomy and apply the updated taxonomy system properly to the domestic soil classification. This study of defining the anthropogenic soil will provide useful information on soil management and its utilization.