Evaluation of chemical properties of organic briquettes developed from slaughterhouse waste

Abstract

Service slaughter houses in the country generate large quantities of animal blood, manure and rumen contents as waste material. Eco-friendly disposal of such waste often requires long time or expensive equipment. The study was conducted to develop organic briquettes using biomass originating from slaughterhouse wastes and to investigate its chemical properties to be used as an organic nutrient source in crop cultivation. Dried rumen contents were mixed with fresh blood collected after bleeding of animals in different proportions and dried using tray drier. The dried rumen content-blood (RB) mixture was further mixed with commercially available coir pith in 12 different proportions. The rumen content-blood-coir pith (RBC) mixture was formed into briquettes using a hydraulic biomass briquetting machine. Each organic briquette was five centimetres in diameter and had an average weight of 30-40 grams. The treatments were analyzed for organic carbon (OC), total nitrogen and carbon: nitrogen ratio. The organic briquette that had rumen content with 100 per cent blood and 80 per cent coir pith (T10) recorded the highest total nitrogen (1.76±0.09 per cent) and lowest carbon: nitrogen ratio while highest organic carbon content (45.97±0.93 per cent) was noted in organic briquette that had rumen content with 80 per cent blood and 60 per cent coir pith (T8 ). The study showed that there is considerable potential for development of organic briquettes that are compact, easy to transport and market, and ideal for grow bag cultivation and garden nurseries by using slaughter house wastes as sources of organic nutrient.