Production of Biomass from Organic Waste

Cecilia Lalander

Project members: Björn Vinnerås, Allan Komakech

From Waste to Value

Treatment aim

Short-cut route in agriculture

Higher use of manure resources

Generate animal protein for use in animal feed

Improve hygienic quality

Kampala is the home of - 4,000 cows - 3,000 goats - 9,000 pigs - 250,000 chickens - 1,300,000 people

60% of all manure dumped or discarded

Vermicomposting system

High mass reduction

Inactivate pathogens?

Worms — 70% protein

NH3 sensitive

Manually harvested

Low maintenance

Vermicomposting unit

1 x 1 x 0.3-1.5 m

Vertical system

2-3 000 worms to start-up

Run by a farmer at the Makere test farm — Eudrilus eugeniae (African nightcrawler)

Feeding ~5 kg m-2 day -1

Accumulate less than 0.5 cm day-1

Mass flow in unit

4 months feeding — 500 kg

>16 000 worms — >20 kg feed

Feed to biomass conversion rate 4.5%

Material degradation — 36 % into CO2

— 60 % reduction

Biomass and fertiliser

BSF system

Experimental set-up

BSF treatment

Faeces BSF

larvae Indicators and pathogens

a) Salmonella Typhimurium

b) Enterococcus faecalis

c) Bacteriophage φX174

d) Ascaris suum eggs

Prepupae Analysed for

pathogen and indicator precence

Residue Pathogen and indicator concentrations monitored as a function of time

Reduction of pathogens

Inactivation in BSF-treatment unit (squares) compared to storage (triangles)

Salmonella spp. Enterococcus spp. фX174

d) No reduction in concentration of Ascaris suum eggs No effect on the inactivation of Ascaris suum eggs

C. Lalander, S. Diener, M. E. Magri, C. Zurbrügg, A. Lindström, B.

Vinnerås, Science of the Total Environment 2013, 458–460, 312-318.

Effectiveness BSF-treatment

Dry Mass Reduction — 73%

Salmonella spp. — 7 log10 reduction

Post-treatment of residue — Ammonia sanitisation

Processing prepupae — Drying

In the process

Summary

High protein production — 4.5% - 10% feed to biomass

conversion

Greatly reduced waste amount — 60-75% reduction

Inactivation of some critical bacterial pathogens — Salmonella spp.

Reduced need for land application of fertiliser — Short-cut in nutrient recycling

Publications from project Information brochure for

farmers

MSc — 1 Finalised — 1 On-going

Papers — 1 Published — 2 Accepted — 1 Submitted — 2 Manuscripts

Other — 1 Newspaper article UNT — 2 Local radio interviews