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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Ammonia Fiber Expansion (AFEX) Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass
Published on: April 18, 2020
Conservation of ammonia during food waste composting
L F Al-Jabi1, M M Halalsheh, D M Badarneh
1Flat 4, 38 Manor Park, London, SE13 5RN, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
An experiment was conducted to quantify ammonia (NH3) losses during food waste composting and to evaluate the effectiveness of mature aerobic sewage sludge/olive pomace compost and phillipsite/chabazite zeolite in reducing NH3 losses during composting. Food waste amended with chopped barley straw was composted for a period of 68 days in three in-vessel reactors. The mature aerobic sewage sludge/olive pomace compost and the zeolite were placed on a mesh tray above the waste mixture in the first and second reactors, respectively. The third reactor contained straw-amended food waste only and served as a control. It was found that the mature aerobic sewage sludge/olive pomace compost reduced NH3-N losses by 36% of initial TN through nitrifying volatilized NH3 into nitrate (NO3-). Zeolite reduced NH3-N losses by 41% of initial total nitrogen due to adsorption of volatilized NH3. The use of mature compost in conservation of nitrogen is a promising cheap method; however, it needs further optimization and research.
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