RAPID COMPOSTING OF RICE STRAW WITH SOME AGRICULTURE GREEN RESIDUES an‎d ANIMAL WASTE UNDER FULL CONTROL SYSTEMS

The objective of the research is to study the composting process of rice straw in closed vessels, and to study the influence of adding the green agricultural residues to compost mixture, study some physical and chemical properties of raw materials and compost during the composting operation, study of the microorganism activity by monitoring differences in biomass temperatures and reducing the time requirement by minimizing fermentation time from 6- 24 weeks to about 4 weeks only and minimizing the area requirement by using in-vessel vertical bioreactor. Three identical bioreactor vessels were designed, constructed, and installed to study and test their performance in rapid composting of chopped rice straw. Experiments were carried out to under aeration rate (0.007 m3/min) and particle size of chopped rice straw (2.0-12.0 mm). Laboratory tests were also executed to examine and evaluate some chemical properties of the raw materials; Temperature profiles; physical and chemical properties of produced compost. The obtained results showed that, the peak temperatures at the three mixtures compost were 57.3, 58.6 and 57.6 0C. The maximum ash, Organic Carbon, C/N ratio, pH, EC, Total Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium content were 32.34 %, 45.09 %, 58.51, 7.28, 0.870 S/m, 2.3%, 0.38% and 4.5% for mixture 1, 34.33 %, 45.05 %, 40.96, 7.08, 0.864 S/m, 2.5%, 0.40% and 4.9% for mixture 2 and 36.47 %, 44.78 %, 49.20, 7.12, 0.804 S/m, 2.39%, 0.36% and 3.70% for mixture 3 respectively.