Testing of Co-Fermentation of Poultry Manure and Corn Silage

Abstract

The development of the production of poultry meat is connected with an increase in the quantity of the manure. The chemical characteristics predisposes this waste to processing by methane fermentation method. This study investigated the influence of ammonia and volatile fat acids on mesophilic anaerobic digestion of poultry manure. The aim of the studies was: to determine the degree of biodegradation of the poultry manure as well as manure and corn silage mixed in various proportions in the process of mesophilic fermentation, to evaluate the impact of mineral nitrogen and volatile fat acids on the course of fermentation, and to establish optimum proportions of these types of waste. The tests confirmed the positive effect of co-fermentation of poultry manure with corn silage. The most favourable ratio for mixing the substrates is the equal percentage of their dry matter in the mixture. With such waste mixing proportions, the degree of degradation of organic substances contained in the manure amounted to 61.8% and was higher than in the mono-digestion of manure and corn silage.