Dual mechanism of membrane covering on GHG and NH₃ mitigation during industrial-scale experiment on dairy manure...

An industrial-scale experiment on dairy manure composting with the control group (Ctrl) and the membrane covering group (CM) was conducted to explore the effects of functional membrane covering on gas emissions, the conversion of carbon and nitrogen, and revealing the underlying mechanisms. Results indicated that CM achieved the synergistic effects on gas mitigation and improved compost product quality. CO₂, CH₄, N₂O, and NH₃ emissions were reduced by 81.8%, 87.0%, 82.6%, and 82.2%, respectively. The micro-aerobic condition formed in membrane covering compost pile together with the covering inhibiting effect dominated the mitigation effect. CM significantly downregulated the mcrA gene copies and the value of mcrA/pmoA (p < 0.01), which reduced CH₄ emission. CM decreased the nirS and nirK gene copies and increased the nosZ gene copies to reduce N₂O emission. Functional Annotation of Prokaryotic Taxa showed that membrane covering effectively amended part of carbon and nitrogen cycles, which stimulated the degradation of organic matter, accelerated compost maturity and reduced the gaseous emissions.