Effects of aeration rate on degradation process of oil palm empty fruit bunch with kinetic-dynamic modeling

Talib AT 1 , Mokhtar MN 2 , Baharuddin AS 3 , Sulaiman A 4

Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Process and Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Process and Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Electronic address: noriznan@upm.edu.my
  • 3 Department of Process and Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia; Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 4 Faculty of Plantation and Agrotechnology, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
Bioresour Technol, 2014 Oct;169:428-38.
PMID: 25079208 DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2014.07.033

Abstract

The effect of different aeration rates on the organic matter (OM) degradation during the active phase of oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB)-rabbit manure co-composting process under constant forced-aeration system has been studied. Four different aeration rates, 0.13 L min(-1) kg(DM)(-1),0.26 L min(-1) kg(DM)(-1),0.49 L min(-1) kg(DM)(-1) and 0.74 L min(-1) kg(DM)(-1) were applied. 0.26 L min(-1) kg(DM)(-1) provided enough oxygen level (10%) for the rest of composting period, showing 40.5% of OM reduction that is better than other aeration rates. A dynamic mathematical model describing OM degradation, based on the ratio between OM content and initial OM content with correction functions of moisture content, free air space, oxygen and temperature has been proposed.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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