The production of soil improvement materials from food waste and water hyacinth by dehydration Process

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to produce the soil improvement materials from food waste and water hyacinth by using a dehydration process. The experiments were divided into two parts : 1) the study of the optimum temperature and time for converting food waste and water hyacinths to soil improvement materials by determining the temperatures of 100 °C, 150 °C and 200°C in the periods of 1 hour, 2 hours and 3 hours, respectively 2) the study of nutrient content in the materials before and after mixing into the soil for 5 days. The soil used in the experiment was sampled from Sai Ma Subdistrict, Nonthaburi Province. The parameters used to evaluate the ability to improve the soil quality were soil moisture, pH, electro conductivity, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, total potassium and organic matter. The results showed that the optimum temperature for drying the food waste was 150°C for 2 hours and the optimum temperature for drying the water hyacinth was 200°C for 3 hours. When the materials were mixed into soil it found that the soil drainage was improved. Mixing the materials into soil could increase the pH value from 5.2 to 5.4 and increase the electrical conductivity from 0.72 mS/cm to 14.78 mS/cm. Besides, the plant nutrients including Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium also increased after adding soil improvement materials.