Influence and characteristics of Bacillus stearothermophilus in ammonia reduction during layer manure composting

Abstract

Ammonia emissions is an important issue during composting because it can cause secondary pollution and a significant of nitrogen loss. Based on research adding Bacillus stearothermophilus can reduce ammonia emissions during composting because it can use sugar in organic matter fermentation to produce organic acids over 50 °C. This study conducted the batch experiments by adding different concentrations of Bacillus stearothermophilus to reduce the ammonia emissions and find out its characteristic during layer manure composting by using an aerobic composting reactor with sawdust as a bulking agent. The results show that the application of Bacillus stearothermophilus can accelerate the rate of temperature and significantly decrease pH, the warming period was 2 days in the treatment with Bacillus stearothermophilus, while it was 4 days in the treatment without Bacillus stearothermophilus. Ammonia emissions were mainly occurred in warming and high temperature period during composting. The ammonia emissions in the treatment with 8.00 g/kg initial Bacillus stearothermophilus were significantly lower than the other lower Bacillus stearothermophilus treatment and control during composting (p < 0.05), and it can significantly increase ammonium-nitrogen and nitrate-nitrogen concentration, reduce pH (p < 0.05), but the average number of Bacillus stearothermophilus copies in treatment with different initial Bacillus stearothermophilus concentration had no significant difference (p > 0.05). MiSeq System Sequencing results find that the addition of Bacillus stearothermophilus changed the bacterial community structure under warming and high-temperature periods during composting, increased the relative abundance of lactic acid bacillus and nitrification bacteria. Therefore, the reason for the low ammonia emission in 8.00 g/kg initial Bacillus stearothermophilus treatments might be not only due to the Bacillus stearothermophilus itself, but also Bacillus stearothermophilus can change the indigenous microorganism community, including increase the relative content of lactic acid Bacillus and nitrification bacteria, thus reducing the pH and promoting nitrification, and reducing ammonia emissions.

Keywords: Ammonia; Bacillus stearothermophilus; Composting; Indigenous microorganism; Layer manure.