Physical and Chemical Characteristics of Organic Packing Materials of Soil, Compost, and Rubber Leaf Litter for Ammonia Biofiltration

Abstract

Ammonia odor released from many industries to environment can be treated by biofiltration. The physical and chemical characteristics of packing materials affect to biofilter in degrading the target pollutant.  The objective of the research was to characterize the physical and chemical characteristics of organic packing materials such as top soil, compost, and rubber-leaf litter on ammonia absorption and to determine the best composition of top soil, compost, and rubber-leaf litter on the characteristics of ammonia absorption.  The packing materials were crushed and screened to pass a 60 mesh screener.  The single and mixture of packing materials have been characterized to physical characteristics (density and porosity) and chemical characteristics  (moisture content, pH, C/N ratio, water holding capacity (WHC), ammonia absorption capacity (AAC), and ammonia holding capacity (AHC)).  Organic packing materials such as soil, compost, and rubber-leaf litter are nutrient-rich materials and capable in absorbing ammonia physically and chemically, so it will be very useful in the application as a packing material for biofilter.  The best physical characteristics was rubber-leaf litter, and the best chemical cahracteristics was compost.   The composition of  soil, compost, and rubber-leaf litter by weight at 1:2:2 was the best performance.

Keywords: ammonia absorption, biofilter, compost, rubber-leaf litter, top soil