Department of Chemical and Process Systems Engineering
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Item Impact of vermicompost on peas cultivated soil(Global Journal of Engineering Science and Researches., 2014-03-04) Manyuchi, Mercy; Phiri, T; Muredzi, PerkinsVermicomposting is an environmentally friendly technique that is used for organic solid waste management. Waste corn pulp blended with cow dung and office paper was vermicomposted over 30 days to produce vermicompost which is a solid bio with peas at the planting phase and after every four weeks. The impact of vermicompost on the soil was quantified. Application of vermicompost resulted in a 33%, 40%, and 67% increase in the soil nitrogen potassium content respectively. Furthermore, Zinc, copper, manganese and iron indicated a 91%, 67%, 56% and 10% increase in nutrient composition. The peas showed vigor and vitality during the period of growth. Vermicompost can be used for sustainable agriculture practices easing food shortages hence improved food security. Keywords: bio-fertilizer, peas, soil properties, vermicompost, food demand I. INTRODUCTION Vermicomposting of organic waste is widely being used as a solid waste management technology [1-2]. During vermicomposting, epigeic earthworms ingest the organic wastes and are expelled as vermicasts after a bioconversion process in the earthworms gut [3-5]. These vermicasts are termed vermicompost and are rich with the fertilizer macro and micronutrients [2; 5]. Vermicompost also contain living microorganisms and have a high content of humus like material [2; 5]. This vermicompost can be utilized as a bio-fertilizer which is environmentally friendly [6-9]. Vermicompost has been used in sustainable agriculture and was found to stimulate plant growth [1]. Vermicompost has been applied to several plants including strawberries, tomato, rice, lettuce and maize [1; 3; 5; 8; 10-12]. The objective of this study focused on quantifying the impact of vermicompost on peas cultivated’s soil physicochemical properties. Peas (Pisum Sativum a leguminous vegetable crop which can be grown in 2-3 months. Peas thrive best in silt loam, sandy loams or clay loam soils [13]. Ideal temperature conditions of 13-18◦C and pH of 6.0-7.0 is recommended [13]. II. MATERIALS AND METHODS Materials Waste corn pulp blended with cow dung manure and office paper was vermicomposted for 30 days using Eisenia fetida earthworms waste and earthworms were covered create ideal conditions for vermicomposting (Fig 1). (C) Global Journal Of Engineering Science And Researches OURNAL OF ENGINEERING SCIENCE AND RESEARCHES IMPACT OF VERMICOMPOST ON PEAS CULTIVATED SOIL M. M. Manyuchi*1, T. Mudamburi2 , A. Phiri1and P. Muredzi3 Department of Chemical and Process Systems Engineering, 2Department of Technopreneurship , School of Engineering and Technology, Harare Institute of Technology, 256 Ganges Rd, Belvedere, Harare, Zimbabwe mmanyuchi@hit.ac.zw ABSTRACT Vermicomposting is an environmentally friendly technique that is used for organic solid waste management. Waste corn pulp blended with cow dung and office paper was vermicomposted over 30 days to produce vermicompost which is a solid bio-fertilizer. The vermicompost was applied to claywith peas at the planting phase and after every four weeks. The impact of vermicompost on the soil was quantified. Application of vermicompost resulted in a 33%, 40%, and 67% increase in the soil nitrogen potassium content respectively. Furthermore, Zinc, copper, manganese and iron indicated a 91%, 67%, 56% and 10% increase in nutrient composition. The peas showed vigor and vitality during the period of growth. sustainable agriculture practices easing food shortages hence improved food securityItem Impact of Vermicompost on Lettuce Cultivated Soil(International Journal of Inventive Engineering and Sciences (IJIES), 2013-10-02) Manyuchi, Musaida Mercy; Mudamburi, T; Phiri, Anthony; Muredzi, Perkins— Vermicomposting is an environmentally friendly technique that is used for organic solid waste management. Waste corn pulp blended with cow dung and office paper was vermicomposted over 30 days to produce vermicompost which is a bio-fertilizer. The vermicompost was applied to soil cultivated with lettuce at the planting and after every four weeks. The impact of vermicompost on the soil was quantified. Application of vermicompost resulted in a 5%, 21.7%, 16.9% and 4.92% increase in soil pH, nitrogen, phosphorous and manganese content respectively. Application of the vermicompost also resulted in a 9.41% and 3.77% decrease in soil electrical conductivity and potassium content respectively. However, application of vermicompost did not alter the copper and zinc content of the lettuce cultivated soil. The lettuce showed vigor and vitality during the period of growth. Vermicompost can be used for sustainable agriculture practicesItem Effects of soya bean meal feed properties on extrusion failures and implementing a solution.(International Journal of Nutrition and Food Sciences 2013; 2(2) : 60-69 Published online March 10, 2013 (http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ijnfs) doi: 10.11648/j.ijnfs.20130202.16, 2013-03-10) Muredzi, Perkins; Nyahada, Moses; Mashswa, B.WThis research was a contribution on the optimization of extrusion process by determining the effects of feed properties on extrusion failures and implementing a solution. The objectives of the research were to increase the set soy meal to chunk conversion standard from 65% to 80%; to determine the effects of feed properties on extrusion failures; to determine the best conditions of the feed properties that promote an effective extrusion cooking process; and to determine a solution of optimizing these feed properties for successful extrusion. The research was company based and it followed the failures of extrusion experienced at Monmouth Path Investment (Pvt) Ltd in Waterfall, Harare. This research was limited to feed properties such as fat content, moisture content and particle size as the factors that cause extrusion failures. The determination of moisture content was done by using a moisture analyzer, fat content was determined through the Soxhlet method and the particle size of the feed was determined through sieve analysis. The results revealed that extrusion process was most successful when the soy meals fat content was greater than 6.0%, with a moisture content less than 6.0% and particle size range of 0.95-1.0mm. The process of optimization of extrusion process was solved by designing an extrusion calculator and blending ratio factors. The objective of determining the effects of feed properties on extrusion failures was achieved as well as that of implementing a solution. The objective of increasing Monmouth Path’s standard soy meal/chunk conversion was partially achieved since the implemented solution is not yet measurable.Item Effect of Vermicompost, Vermiwash and Application Time on Soil Physicochemical Properties(International Journal of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, 2013-08-01) Manyuchi, Musaida Mercy; Chitambwe, Trymore; Phiri, Anthony; Muredzi, Perkins; Kanhukamwe, QuintonVermicomposting results in the production of two bio-fertilizers, vermicompost and vermiwash. The bio-fertilizers were applied to 4kg of loam-clay soil over a period of 40 days. The effect of the vermicompost, vermiwash, application time and their combined effect on soil pH, electrical conductivity and nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium content were analyzed. Increasing the vermicompost quantity decreased the soil pH, electrical conductivity and nitrogen content, however, this resulted in a slight increase in the phosphorous content but the potassium content remained unaltered. Increasing the vermiwash quantity increased the soil pH, electrical conductivity and potassium content but resulted in reduced nitrogen and phosphorous content. In addition, increasing the application period of either the vermicompost or the vermiwash resulted in increased soil pH, electrical conductivity, phosphorous and potassium content but resulted in reduced phosphorous content. The reduction of the soil nitrogen content is attributed to de-nitrification, whilst the increase in phosphorous content is attributed to increase in soluble phosphates and release of nutrients into the soil due to microbial activity in the bio-fertilizers. Furthermore, loam-clay soils have good absorbing properties for potassium. The soil properties and micro-organisms present in the bio-fertilizers play a critical role on the modification of the soil physicochemical propertiesItem Effect of Vermicompost, Vermiwash and Application Time on Soil Micronutrients Composition(International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT), 2013-06-03) Manyuchi, Musaida Mercy; Phiri, Anthony; Muredzi, PerkinsVermicomposting is increasingly becoming popular as an organic solid waste management strategy. The technology results in two bio-fertilizers, vermicompost and vermiwash. The bio-fertilizers were applied to the soil and their impact on the soil micronutrients time was quantified. A maximum of 1000g of vermicompost and vermiwash was applied over 40 days. 23 factorial designs were used to determine the effects of the bio-fertilizers and application time on the soil micronutrients. Increasing the vermicompost quantity resulted in increased soil zinc, manganese and iron content. Increased vermiwash quantities resulted in increased soil iron content but resulted in decreased copper content. Furthermore, increased application time of the two bio-fertilizers resulted in enhanced soil copper and iron content but decreased the zinc and manganese content. The loam-clay soil, organic material from the bio-fertilizers and microbial activity played a significant role in altering the soil micronutrients.Item Effect of Drying on Vermicompost Macronutrient Composition(International Journal of Inventive Engineering and Sciences (IJIES), 2013-09-05) Manyuchi, M.M; Phiri, A; Muredzi, Perkins; Chirinda, NVermicomposting is widely being used for bio-conversion of organic wastes into bio-fertilizers. Vermicompost which was obtained from various food wastes was dried at 105◦C for 5 minutes in a moisture analyzer. The dried vermicompost macronutrient composition was analyzed and quantified over the raw vermicompost. The dried vermicompost total nitrogen content was 31.25% lower as compared to the raw vermicompost whereas , the phosphorous and potassium content were 63.75% and 72.86% higher in the dried vermicompost compared to the raw vermicompost respectively. Vermicompost can be dried for easier packaging, storage and transportation as the drying process in overall enhances nutritional value to the vermicompostItem Continuous flow-through vermireactor for medium scale vermicomposting(Asian Journal of Engineering and Technology, 2013-04-01) Manyuchi, Musaida Mercy; Chitambwe, Trymore; Chigumo, Michelle T. C.; Phiri, Anthony; Muredzi, Perkins; Kanhukamwe, QuintonVermicomposting is increasingly becoming popular as an organic waste management technology whereby earthworms feed on the organic waste to produce vermicasts and vermiwash. Several vermireactors have been used for this process as batch systems. However, there is need to design a continuous flow-through vermireactor which allows the simultaneous addition of the organic waste at the same time harvesting the vermicasts. A 5m X 2m X 1.5m vermireactor was proposed to process an initial feed of 7 500kg. A 10cm thick bedding comprising of office paper, card board paper and Eisenia fetida earthworms stocked at 1kg/m2 of the vermireactor was used as an initial bedding. The feed bed was 20cm thick and comprised of paper, cow dung, corn pulp and vegetables. The pH, temperature and moisture content in the vermireactor ranged between 5.5-7.5, 19-25°C and 28-52% respectively. 7kg/day of vermicasts were produced given the earthworms produced 75% of their bodyweight as vermicasts per day. The caked vermicasts were expelled by the aid of a breaker bar. The vermireactor was constructed from polyvinyl chloride. Vermicasts containing nitrogen (4.19%), phosphorous(1.15%) and potassium (6.18%) were obtained. The continuous flow-through vermireactor design allowed the production of stable vermicasts and can be used in medium scale vermicomposting.Item Bio-conversion of Food Wastes into Vermicompost and Vermiwash(International Journal of Science and Modern Engineering (IJISME), 2013-09-10) Manyuchi, Mercy; Phiri, Anthony; Muredzi, Perkins; Chirinda, NgoniVermicomposting technology is the bio-conversion of organic waste into bio-fertilizers using earthworms. Vermicomposting is widely being used for solid waste management. Various food wastes were vermicomposted over 30 days using Eisenia fetida earthworms. Vermicompost and vermiwash were obtained as vermi-products. The vermicompost nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium composition was 2.1%, 0.29% and 0.19% respectively. Whereas, the vermiwash only contained 0.58% nitrogen and 0.47% potassium. Vermicomposting technology is necessary as a food wastes management strategy.