Optimization Air Supply on Cattle Manure Composting in Packed-Bed Reactor

The aim of this research was to determine the appropriate strategy for cattle manure composting with on/off sequencing forced aeration. The composting of cattle manure was conducted using an 18.8 L reactor with three different amounts of total air supplied (1080, 3240, and 10800 L/kgdm) during 360 h of composting using continuous and on/off sequencing (20 min/h) methods and three turning patterns (no turning, full turning and turning with position change). The pattern of moisture change was more affected by turning rather than aeration modes. The composting condition make the highest organic matter loss are aeration rate: 0.45 L/min.kgdm, aeration mode: on/off sequencing process and full turning. The total accumulated weight losses and heat generated during composting were found significantly affect by total air supply and were large in case of continuous process.