Abstract:
Abstract: This study aims to propose a feasible production technology for organic fertilizer or soil amendments using small-scale compost decomposing with local straws and livestock manure. The technical procedure included the straw flilamentization, material mixing, compression molding, and small-scale compost decomposing. The compost production was transformed from transporting materials to moving equipment, from decomposing and then forming to bagging and then decomposing. The fertilizer production technology can contribute to enhance the local utilization rate of agricultural wastes from small and medium-sized scattered farmers, as well as the mechanization during composting and decomposing effects. The appropriate fertilizer source material ratio and compression ratio were selected under the different material moisture content to prevent water pollution of livestock manure. The special microbial compound agents were added to control the maturity time, and thereby regulate the release of odorous gases. The corn stalks and cow dung were used as fertilizer sources. The seed germination index (GI) was selected as the detection index for the maturity effect of composting. The experimental factors were set for the small-scale compost production, where the key process parameters included the ratio of fertilizer source materials, material moisture content, the compression ratio, application number of microbial agents, and the maturity time. A single factor experiment was conducted to determine the appropriate range of experimental factors. A better maturity effect of small-scale compost fertilizer was achieved, where the critical value of applied microbial agent was 0.5‰, the fertilizer source material ratio was 15% to 35%, the material moisture content was 45% to 60%, the compression ratio was 25% to 50%, and the maturity time reached 24 days. A combination experiment of ternary quadratic regression and orthogonal rotation was performed to optimize the influence of key process parameters on the maturity effect of compost fertilizer. A regression model was established between the seed germination index and various factors. The analysis showed that the primary and secondary order for the influence of various factors on the seed germination index was: material moisture content > compression ratio > fertilizer source material ratio. There were significant effects on seed germination index (P<0.05) in the correlation of fertilizer source material ratio and compression ratio, and the correlation of material moisture content and compression ratio. The optimized process parameters were verified by the field experiments. An optimal combination of process parameters was determined to be the application of 1.5‰ microbial bacteria dosage, maturity for 32 days, the material moisture content of 60%, the compression ratio of 39.50%, and the material ratio of 23%. In this case, the seed germination index of small-scale compost fertilizer reached 96.52%, where the detection of indicators can meet the national standards for organic fertilizer and the requirements of agricultural production, while, the local straw and livestock manure can be nearby used conveniently. The findings can provide a theoretical basis for the local compost of organic fertilizer on a small scale, further to design the supporting equipment in low-carbon agriculture.