Effect of aeration frequency on food waste composting /
Increasing in population caused the demand for food production also increase. Currently in Malaysia, about 38,000 tonnes of food waste was generated daily and across the globe, more than one-third of food was grown and produced for human consumption ends up lost or wasted. Food waste occurs across t...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Click here to view 1st 24 pages of the thesis. Members can view fulltext at the specified PCs in the library. |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Increasing in population caused the demand for food production also increase. Currently in Malaysia, about 38,000 tonnes of food waste was generated daily and across the globe, more than one-third of food was grown and produced for human consumption ends up lost or wasted. Food waste occurs across the food system from the farm, post-harvest, processing, transporting, wholesaling, retailing and the consumers. Without proper management, the food waste can lead to serious consequences. Thus, it was important to find a solution to treat the food waste. Globally, most of the food wastes were treated using composting but it normally take a lot of time to complete. Hence, this study was aimed to enhance composting process by study each parts of the food waste properties. It was divided into three parts which are physical, chemical, and biological. Composting process was done in physical part. The first step is the food waste was collected from the restaurant and was bring to sampling site. Then, at the sampling site, the food waste was spread on the canvas to drain the excess water and was undergo grinding process and drying process before put into composting bin. Next, the bin was aerated with different aeration time for comparison. Data for compost temperature, compost pH, ambient temperature and relative humidity was taken every 1 hour except compost moisture content. The data taken for compost moisture content was every 24 hours. All the composting parameter was measured for 72 hours or 3 days, continuously. Percentage of mass reduction also had been calculated. Then, for chemical part, after finishing composting process, the compost was analysed using ICP-MS instrument for heavy metal (nutrient) detection and CHNS Analyser for Carbon (C), Hydrogen, (H), Nitrogen (N), and Sulphur (S) detection. With this result, CN ratio and NPK value was determined for their suitability to be used as fertilizer. Besides that, the compost can also be applied and used as a soil amendment. Next, for biological part, the gram-staining was done for pre-detection of negative-gram or positive-gram bacteria existed in the food waste compost. Further detection was done using PCR and DNA sequencing for better understanding of the bacteria type and function. Result in physical part shows that for Sample A, the range of compost temperature recorded is 24-37°c, compost pH of 5.47-6.37, compost moisture content of 0.41% and 31% of waste reduction while for Sample B, the range of compost temperature recorded is 24-37°c, compost pH of 5.62-6.35, compost moisture content of 4.86% and 45% of waste reduction. CN ratio and NPK value for Sample A is 11 and 16:2:1, respectively while Sample B is 8 and 21:2:1, respectively. While for biological part, the types of bacteria that have been detected are Bacillus badius, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus licheniformis and Brevibacillus agri. Finally, using all the data obtained from the study, the steps of composting was rearranged to enhance the effectiveness during the process. It can save time, save money and more importantly is environmental-friendly. |
|---|---|
| Item Description: | Abstracts in English and Arabic. "A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Biosciences)." --On title page. |
| Physical Description: | xix, 233 leaves : colour illustrations ; 30cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 189-206). |