Lecture No.

32
Utilization and Enrichment of Slurry

Biodigested Slurry Densification

Farmyard manure is the traditional source of organic manure and
is, most readily available to the farmers. About half of the 813 million
tones of cattle dung produced annually in India is being used as fuel. To
avoid the' use of cowdung for the fuel and manurial purpose the gober
gas plant was introduced in which dung is fermented to yield a
combustion gas and the residue passed through the gober gas plant is a
manure rich in nutrients.
The composition of the sludge produced by anaerobic digestion is
determined by the composition of the raw material fed to the' biogas
plant. The efficient slurry consists of soluble substances such as
phosphate, ammonium and its salts, potassium salts and some trace
elements absorbed on the organic matter or exchanged by absorption
with humic acid.
Undecomposed organic residues such as lignin and small amount
of under-composed cellulose and hemi cellulose, humus like substances
formed by digestion of lignin protein, polysaccharides etc.
Anaerobic digestion of organic waste conserves nutrients needed
for crop production. The only materials removed from the system are the
gases generated, mostly methane, carbon-di-oxide and hydrogen
sulphide.
Analytical date of the organic manures is as follows:
N% P% K% Fe ppm Mn Zn Uu
ppm ppm ppm
Biogas slurry 1.60 1.40 1.20 4200 550 150 52
FYM 1.00 0.62 0.80 5700 490 100 45
Compost 1.30 1.00 1.00 4000 530 120 50
The anaerobic digestion of organic wastes such as human excreta,
cattle dung, crop residues, etc. produces manures of better quality than
that is produced aerobically (conventional composting> as losses of plant
nutrients and organic matter during digestion are least. Physically also,
digested manure when dried is more finely divided and is easily mixed
with the soil. The sludge/biogas slurry emits no offensive odors and
does not attract flies or rodents. The weed seeds which are generally
found in farm yard manure are completely destroyed due to anaerobic
digestion.
It has also been observed that crops manured with digested slurry
stand up to long drought much better than those grown with other
organic manures.
1
Enrichment of digested slurry
The dried slurry would still have low plant nutrient content and
would need to be applied in large amounts to obtain differences in crop
yields.
An effective method of treating such manure is to enrich them with
fertilizer nitrogen and with phosphatic fertilizers, to obtain concentrated
organomineral fertilizers which could be applied in comparatively small
quantity. The dry slurry can also be used to replace dolomite as filler in
granulated N.P.K. fertilizer mixture when dolomite Is replaced by an
organic matter like dried slurry not only its fertilizer value increase but
the residue helps to build up soil structure. The common fertilizers
which are generally used for enrichment are
1) Urea for nitrogen 2.5 kg per 25 kg of slurry
2) Superphosphate 5 kg per 25 kg of slurry
3) Rock phosphate 5 kg per 25 kg of slurry
Application of biogas slurry therefore seems to afford a very good
means of satisfying the needs of the plants for readily available nutrients
and this can be made use of with advantage by all users or biogas
plants.
Pelletiser
A pelletiser has been fabricated for densification of biodigested
slurry into granules rock phosphate as a source of enrichment and coir
waste as a source of binding material. The pellestiser consists of two
units (i) pellets extruder and (jj) gyrotary shaker. Enriched biodigested
slurry of optimum consistency is fed into the hopper of the pellet
extruder and the feed material is extruded by helical screw through
spout and made into thick noodles. The noodles are cut into small equal
pieces and made into spherical pellets in a gyrotary shaker. The
spherical pellets can be applied through a granular applicator. The cost
of the pellestlser Is RS.15,000/-.