Journal of Cleaner Production 371 (2022) 133408

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Journal of Cleaner Production

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Impact of zeolite amendment on composting of food waste digestate

M.K. Manu a, 1, Chen Wang a, b, 1, Dongyi Li a, Sunita Varjani c, Jonathan W.C. Wong a, d, *
a
Institute of Bioresource and Agriculture, Sino-Forest Applied Research Centre for Pearl River Delta Environment and Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist
University, Hong Kong
b
College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China
c
Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gandhinagar, 382010, Gujarat, India
d
School of Technology, Huzhou University, Huzhou, 311800, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Handling Editor: Prof. Jiri Jaromir Klemeš Food waste digestate (FWD) is an organic waste characterized by high NH+ 4 -N content and its composting is
challenging due to the higher NH3 emission and nitrogen loss. In the present study, FWD was co-composted with
Keywords: sawdust and mature compost, and zeolite was used as a physical additive for nitrogen conservation. The results
Food waste digestate demonstrated that amending 5% and 10% zeolite reduced the NH3 emission to 1.8% and 1.6%, respectively,
Zeolite
compared to 2.5% in the control without any zeolite. Overall, the zeolite amendment had a positive impact on
Nitrogen conservation
nitrogen conservation as the nitrogen loss could be mitigated by 34–39% using 5–10% dosages. Besides, the
Ammonia emission
Phytotoxicity zeolite addition showed considerable improvement in the FWD decomposition as the degradation rate was
Compost maturity increased by 30–32% resulting in a carbon loss of 27–29%. Furthermore, the phytotoxic nature of FWD could be
diminished by zeolite amendment which reduced the NH+ 4 -N contents to a permissible limit (≤500 mg/kg dm)
and increased the seed germination index to > 80% in 14 days of co-composting.

1. Introduction digestate (Manu et al., 2021a). The management of food waste digestate
(FWD) generated from food waste treating anaerobic digestion plant is
Global food waste generation is increasing every year causing a se­ challenging due to its innate physicochemical characteristics such as
vere impact on health, environment, and economy. Utilizing food waste high moisture content (75–80%), higher ammonium nitrogen (NH+ 4 -N)
as a resource is a way forward in the fossil fuel-depleting world which is content (6000–8000 mg/kg dm) and low carbon (C) to nitrogen (N) ratio
also essential to curb pollution as well as to reduce the burden on (5–7) (Malhotra et al., 2022). Hence, storing or direct land application of
landfills (Kaur et al., 2020). The pursuit of sustainable organic waste FWD causes environmental and health hazards due to NH3 and N2O
management and adaption of climate change policies for clean energy emissions (Manu et al., 2021a). The presence of high NH+ 4 -N in digestate
has led to increased anaerobic digestion plants for food waste treatment causes its safer disposal issues as many countries have legislated a
all over the world (Lu and Xu, 2021). Hong Kong commenced its first framework for digestate to meet compost standards before its use in land
centralized anaerobic digestion plant in 2018 to treat 200 tonnes per day applications (Logan and Visvanathan, 2019). In addition, high nitrogen
and planning to establish multiple treatment facilities in the coming in digestate could be a potential resource for the production of
years to divert the food waste from landfills (Manu et al., 2021a). nutrient-rich biofertilizer. However, composting of FWD is challenging
Despite growing interest in anaerobic digestion technology globally, since the presence of higher NH+ 4 -N could cause inevitable NH3 vola­
limited attention has been given to the dewatered digestate (Cheong tilization as well as greenhouse gas (GHG), N2O emissions which results
et al., 2020) and its safer disposal without which the circular in low-quality compost production (Lim et al., 2017). Hence, there is a
bio-economy cannot be achieved (Huang et al., 2020). critical need to develop effective composting approaches to handle FWD
Food waste digestate is already partially digested during anaerobic with emphasis on reduction in ammonia emissions to produce
digestion process (Dutta et al., 2021), however, the degradation of nutrient-rich compost (Chen et al., 2021).
organic substrates during anaerobic digestion leads to the production of Recent studies have shown that the co-composting of low C/N ratio
ammonium nitrogen (NH+ 4 -N) which eventually gets accumulated in the organic waste such as FWD with sawdust could significantly enhance the

* Corresponding author. Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong.
E-mail address: [email protected] (J.W.C. Wong).
1
Contributed equally.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.133408
Received 15 February 2022; Received in revised form 22 July 2022; Accepted 29 July 2022
Available online 6 August 2022
0959-6526/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M.K. Manu et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 371 (2022) 133408

composting properties of FWD and quality compost could be produced FWD + sawdust + mature compost) was used in each treatment. The
in lesser composting duration (Song et al., 2021). In addition, amending majority of composting studies with a physical amendment such as
with a physical additive such as biochar (Manu et al., 2021b) and acti­ zeolite have shown to be effective in the dosage range of 2–10%, hence
vated carbon (Wang et al., 2022) could lower the toxicity of FWD by the zeolite dosage of 0–10% was chosen in this study. In the first
adsorbing NH+ 4 -N thereby mitigating NH3 emission and reducing nitro­ treatment (R1), the composting mixture was added without any
gen loss during digestate composting. amendment and used as control whereas physical additive zeolite
The quest for alternative low-cost physical amendments with the (particle size: < 0.5 mm) was added in treatments R2, R3, and R4 with
ability to reduce NH3 emission is continuing in composting research the concentration of 2.5%, 5% and 10% on a dry weight basis, respec­
(Hoang et al., 2022). Among the available physical amendments, tively. The feedstock materials and zeolite were mixed thoroughly for
low-cost additive like zeolite is getting attention in composting due to its the homogeneous distribution of zeolite particles before adding to the
unique open reticular structure that acts as a molecular sieving and reactors. Considering the repeatability of composters used in the pre­
three-dimensional framework with high ion exchange and moisture vious experiments, the experimental design in the present study include
retention ability (Waqas et al., 2019). Zeolite has proved to be an a single composter for each treatment (Manu et al., 2021b).
effective amendment in nitrogen conservation and mitigation of gaseous
emissions during composting of organic waste such as food waste (Chan 2.2. Sampling and analyses
et al., 2016), sewage sludge (Awasthi et al., 2017), livestock manure
(Subova et al., 2021), agricultural waste (Zhou et al., 2019) and diges­ During the 42 days composting process, around 300 g of homoge­
tate (Li et al., 2022). Previous studies have demonstrated that 1–25% nized sample from each treatment was collected on days 0, 3, 7, 10, 14,
zeolite dosage could considerably mitigate NH3 and GHG emissions by 21, 28, and 42 for assessing the changes in physico-chemical charac­
15–85% in various organic waste composting due to the combined teristics of composting matrix. The physicochemical parameters were
stoichiometric ion exchange and adsorption (Soudejani et al., 2019). In measured as per TMECC standards (TMECC et al., 2003). The NH3
addition, zeolite provides a stable living environment for the microor­ gaseous emission was determined by trapping the exhaust gas from the
ganisms and accelerates the decomposition process without inhibitory top of the reactor into H2SO4 solution followed by spectrometric mea­
effects (Cui et al., 2021). Furthermore, nitrogen-enriched zeolite in the surement whereas CO2 evolution was measured by gas analyzer (Herts,
final compost possesses greater fertilizer value as it can act as a UK) (Wang et al., 2016). Compost maturity was evaluated by the
nutrient-conserving amendment in the soil thereby reducing the maturity indices such as C/N ratio and seed germination index (SGI). In
nutrient leaching and water use efficiency along with enhanced crop addition, E4/E6 ratio and SUVA280 were determined using Shimadzu UV
growth (Mardini et al., 2016). spectrophotometer (Wang et al., 2018).
Currently, Hong Kong’s first food waste treatment facility is facing
several issues on food waste digestate composting operations as the high
NH+ 2.3. Kinetic analysis
4 -N in FWD is causing lengthened composting process with poor
quality compost production (Manu et al., 2021a). It is affecting the
timely treatment of digestate as per the plant design that has resulted in The biodegradation kinetics of FWD was determined using cumula­
storage of digestate for longer duration causing environmental and tive CO2 emission data and the degradation rates in each treatment were
health nuisances at the facility. In the literature, there are no studies calculated by three kinetic models namely (Song et al., 2021):
available addressing the issues of nitrogen loss during FWD composting. First-first-order model:
To tackle this issue, zeolite was used as a physical amendment to reduce C = Cr (1 − exp(− kr t)) + Cs (1 − exp(− ks t)) (1)
the nitrogen loss during digestate composting. The objective of the
present study includes the performance assessment of zeolite amend­ Chen and Hashimoto kinetic model:
( )
ment on nitrogen conservation during FWD digestate composting. In (1 − R)K
addition, the zeolite dosage optimization was conducted by examining C = 100 − 100 × R + (2)
μm t − 1 + K
the changes in physicochemical properties and NH3 emission during
FWD co-composting. Levi-Minzi kinetic model:
C = ktm (3)
2. Materials and methods
In Eqn. 1, C: CO2 emission (%); Cr and Cs: fast and slowly degrading
2.1. Experimental design components; kr and ks: rate constants (day− 1) for the same fractions. In
Eqn. (2), R: refractory coefficient; K: dimensionless constant, and μm:
Fresh FWD was collected from Organic Resources Recovery Centre 1 microbial growth rate (day− 1). In Eqn. (3), k: variable unit (mg/kg day);
(ORRC1), Hong Kong after the centrifugation of the whole digestate m: curve shape.
from the single-stage anaerobic digestion of food waste. FWD with a The above-mentioned models were assessed for determining the
moisture content of ~75% and C/N ratio of ~6 was then mixed with constants using a non-linear regression method and the appropriateness
locally procured sawdust and ORRC1 mature compost in the ratio of models was validated by chi-square (χ2), root mean square error
53%:30%:17% (fresh weight basis). The resultant composting mixture (RMSE), and efficiency (EF) (Song et al., 2021).
had a moisture content of ~53% and a C/N ratio of ~22 (Manu et al.,
2021b). The chemical parameters of FWD such as pH, EC and NH+ 4 -N 2.4. Statistical analysis
were found to be 8.2, 11.5 mS/cm and 6551 mg/kg dm, respectively.
The sawdust and mature compost addition resulted in composting Physico-chemical analyses conducted in duplicates were subjected to
mixture with pH, EC and NH+ 4 -N as 8.1, 8.3 mS/cm and 2894 mg/kg dm, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the means between the treatments
respectively. were compared using Turkey’s test at the confidence interval of 95% (P
For the composting experiment, bench-scale composters (h: 55 cm; < 0.05) (SPSS 24.0, SPSS Inc., USA). To understand the influence of
dia: 25 cm) made up of stainless steel (2 mm) with a total capacity of 20 zeolite amendment on the nitrogen transformations during FWD com­
L equipped with a temperature probe, feedback control system, insu­ posting followed by the production of mature compost, structural
lation, and aeration provisions with an aeration supply of 0.25 L/kg/min equation models (SEM) were constructed by maximum likelihood pro­
were used (Song et al., 2021). The experimental design included four gram using IBM AMOS 24.0 (IBM, USA). To evaluate the causal rela­
treatments in which approximately 7 kg of composting mixture (i.e., tionship, the changes in nitrogen components such as TKN, NH+ 4 -N, NH3

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M.K. Manu et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 371 (2022) 133408

were correlated with the humic substances indicated by SUVA280 and composting time. A slight reduction in pH from ~8.3 to ~7.8 was
SGI. The model fit adequacy was tested using the chi-square test (p > observed in treatments R1 and R2 as a result of the production of acids
0.05), goodness of fit index (GFI >0.90) and root mean square errors of during the biotransformation phase (Fig. 1b). In contrast, the addition of
approximation (RMSEA <0.05) (Manu et al., 2021b). higher zeolite dosage in treatments R3 (5%) and R4 (10%) did not affect
the pH changes significantly possibly due to the buffering capacity (P >
3. Results and discussion 0.05). Villasenor et al. (2011) also reported no significant effect of
zeolite addition on pH during composting of domestic sewage sludge.
3.1. Influence of zeolite on composting properties The pH of the end product in this study was in the range suggested by
Hong Kong Organic Resources Centre (HKORC) standards (5.5–8.5)
In this study, zeolite amendment significantly affected the microbial (HKORC, 2021).
activities and hence different composting temperature profile was Electrical conductivity indicates the salinity of waste and it is rela­
observed in all treatments (P < 0.05). The higher dosages of zeolite (i.e., tively proportional to plant growth. In this study, after mixing the FWD
5% and 10%) significantly enhanced the microbial activities due to their with bulking agents, EC value of feedstock was found to be ~8.2 mS/cm.
high water retention capacity, high porosity and reduced NH+ 4 -N The presence of zeolite in R2-R4 did not alter the EC of initial feedstock.
toxicity, as a result, the temperature increased above 55 ◦ C on first day During the decomposition process, a slight decline was seen followed by
in treatments R3 and R4 (Fig. 1a). In contrast, a maximum temperature no significant changes among the treatments throughout the composting
of ~40 ◦ C was achieved in treatments R1 and R2 (2.5% zeolite) on day 1 duration (P > 0.05) as a result of humic substances formation by
(Waqas et al., 2019). In treatment R2, the addition of 2.5% zeolite was effective microbial activities (Fig. 1c). Salinity is a significant factor in
not sufficient for longer thermophilic phase as only 3 days were nitrogen dynamics in the biological treatment process. The constant EC
observed above 55 ◦ C which was in correspondence with the previous throughout the process indicates that the stoichiometric ion exchange
study (Subova et al., 2021). In contrast, a longer thermophilic phase up between zeolite and composting matrix is more significant than the
to 15 days and 22 days was seen in R3 and R4 with 5% and 10% zeolite, adsorption process (Zorpas, 2014).
respectively fulfilling the sanitation requirements (Manu et al., 2017)
due to superior microbial activities (Manu et al., 2019). The differences 3.2. Impact of zeolite on carbon mineralization
between control and zeolite amended treatments were significant (P <
0.05), in addition, 10% zeolite treatment was significantly different than The temperature profile demonstrated that amending FWD with
other treatments (P < 0.05) indicating that the concentration of zeolite zeolite could significantly enhance the microbial decomposition which
plays an important role in the microbial degradation of FWD. Ven­ was also confirmed with carbon mineralization profiles (Fig. 2). The
glovsky et al. (2005) showed comparable results with 1% and 2% zeolite FWD co-composting mixture initially had ~40–42% of TOC which
addition to the solid fraction of pig slurry whereas 5% (Mao et al., 2019) continuously decreased during the composting process in all treatments
and 15% zeolite addition has demonstrated longer thermophilic com­ as a result of microbial activities (Fig. 2a). The percentage reduction of
posting (Waqas et al., 2019). TOC was in correlation with the amount of zeolite added and it was
pH is an important parameter in FWD composting since pH higher highest in treatment with 10% zeolite (9.5%) trailed by R3 (9.1%) and
than 7 increases NH3-to-NH+ 4 -N ratio leading to increased NH3 volatili­ R2 (6.7%) with 5% and 2.5% zeolite amendments, respectively. The
zation (Wong et al., 2017). The feedstock used in the present study had differences between the control and zeolite amended treatments were
alkaline pH (~8.3), the addition of zeolite did not change the pH of FWD significant (P < 0.05) due to the enhanced degradation by zeolite
composting matrix as observed previously (Fig. 1b) (Lim et al., 2017), amendment. In control treatment R1 without zeolite addition, only 4.5%
and there was no significant difference between the treatments with TOC reduction was observed signifying the effectiveness of zeolite

Fig. 1. Temporal variations during composting in (a) Temperature; (b) pH and (c) EC (R1 = 0% zeolite; R2 = 2.5% zeolite; R3 = 5% zeolite; R4 = 10% zeolite).

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M.K. Manu et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 371 (2022) 133408

Fig. 2. Carbon mineralization showing (a) Daily CO2 emission; (b) Cumulative CO2 emission; (c) reduction in TOC and (d) Percentage C loss with respect to initial C
content (R1 = 0% zeolite; R2 = 2.5% zeolite; R3 = 5% zeolite; R4 = 10% zeolite).

addition on the degradation of FWD during co-composting. without zeolite addition in R1 was ~22 g/day/kg dw whereas in R2 with
Aerobic degradation of organic matter results in CO2 emission and 2.5% zeolite, it was ~32 g/day/kg dw. However, in treatments R3 and
the rate of degradation is directly proportional to the microbial activities R4, higher CO2 emission, i.e., ~40 g/day/kg dw was observed due to the
(Zhou et al., 2018). Hence, daily CO2 emission was measured to assess addition of 5% and 10% zeolite. Further, the rate of CO2 emission
the percentage transformation of available organic carbon during FWD reduced in the later part of composting and the emission was lesser in R1
co-composting (Fig. 2b). compared to zeolite amended treatments (R2-R4) which is also in cor­
The CO2 emission increased as soon as the composting process relation with the temperature trend.
started and the increasing trend was observed up to day 3 in all treat­ Cumulative CO2 emission was considered for determining the carbon
ments, however, the amount of CO2 generated varied among the treat­ mineralization as shown in Fig. 2c. At the end of the composting process,
ments as the zeolite addition showed a significant difference compared cumulative evolution of ~200 g/kg dw was seen in R1 without zeolite
to the control (P < 0.05). During this period, the maximum CO2 emission whereas 2.5% zeolite addition in treatment R2 caused a cumulative

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M.K. Manu et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 371 (2022) 133408

release of ~300 g/kg dw. The higher zeolite dosage treatments R3 and The Levi-Minzi model (Eqn. (3)) was found to be more suitable for
R4 produced cumulative CO2 emission of ~400 g/kg dw. The carbon the initial fast decomposition phase than the later part of composting.
mineralization showed that the biodegradation of FWD could be The increase in k values and decrease in m values indicated a better
enhanced by 50% by amending with 5% or 10% zeolite. model fit for zeolite amended treatments. Despite of high model effi­
The zeolite amendment has shown significant improvement in the ciency (EF = 0.99), the other two models were found to be better in
decomposition of FWD during co-composting. The carbon balance fitting CO2 emission data based on the goodness of fit (5.77–10.67) and
showed a carbon loss of ~16%, 19%, 27%, and 29% in treatments R1- errors (2.07–2.33).
R4, respectively. Domestic sewage sludge composting has resulted in
45% of carbon loss with 25% zeolite (Villasenor et al., 2011). In our 3.3. Changes in nitrogen components by zeolite amendment
previous study, amending tobacco biochar in concentrations 2.5–10%
showed a carbon loss of 25–32% during FWD co-composting (Manu The biological decomposition of FWD composting matrix caused an
et al., 2021b). These results indicate that 5% and 10% zeolite amend­ increase in total nitrogen in all treatments due to the mass loss in the
ment could enhance FWD decomposition similar to biochar amendment. present study (Fig. 3a).
For further understanding of zeolite impact on biodegradation ki­ Among the four treatments, the highest nitrogen content was found
netics during FWD co-composting, the degradation rate was calculated in treatments with zeolite indicating the efficient adsorption of NH+ 4 -N
using the cumulative CO2 evolution with different zeolite dosages. Three and NH3 thereby enhancing the nitrogen conservation. As a result, the
kinetic models were considered for curve fitting (Fig. 2d-g) and to phytotoxicity of feedstock matrix due to the presence of high NH+ 4 -N
calculate the kinetic constants (Table 1). content was reduced to an acceptable limit of ≤500 mg/kg dm in 7, 10,
The results of curve fitting of the first-first-order kinetic model (Eqn. and 21 days in zeolite amended treatments R4 (10%), R3 (5%) and R2
(1)) to experimental CO2–C evolution revealed that the rate improved (2.5%), respectively (Fig. 3b) (Manu et al., 2020). In contrast, NH+ 4 -N in
with the zeolite amendment before composting. The rate of easily the control treatment took 28 days to reach the permissible limit which
consumable substrates (kr) in control treatment was 0.348 day− 1, while was significantly different than the zeolite amended treatments (P <
2.5%–10% zeolite enhanced to 0.3993 day− 1, 0.5124 day− 1 and 0.5477 0.05) due to the slow decomposition process caused by its toxicity on
day− 1, respectively. The trend of non-easily decomposable reaction rate microbial activities. Besides, almost 90% of NH+ 4 -N was reduced or
ks showed that the zeolite addition assists in further decomposition. transformed into a non-toxic form of nitrogen in 5% and 10% zeolite
Similar results were observed by Tosun et al. (2008) during the amended treatments. The reduction of NH+ 4 -N could be due to the
co-composting of rose processing waste with OFMSW. The statistical combined effect of biotic and abiotic reactions such as fast microbial
analyses showed higher model efficiency (EF = 0.99), however, χ2 and immobilization due to a better composting environment and sorp­
RMSE scores indicated good fitting in only zeolite amended treatments. tion/binding of NH+ 4 -N on diametrically located channels of zeolite (Lim
In Chen and Hashimoto model (Eqn. (2)), R (0.185–0.31) and K et al., 2017). NH+ 4 -N loss of 30–38% and 60–67% was observed previ­
(84–97) values were significantly close signifying the model appropri­ ously in sewage sludge (Villasenor et al., 2011) and digestate com­
ateness for fitting the cumulative CO2 evolution during composting of posting studies (Li et al., 2022). Such a phenomenon helps to enhance
FWD in all four treatments. The μm values were increased by 25%, 44%, the compost quality since the NH+ 4 -N sequestered zeolite compost has
and 47% with the addition of 2.5%, 5%, and 10% zeolite compared to proved to be an efficient slow-release nitrogen source for crop growth in
the control treatment which is in corroboration with temperature and soil (Bautista et al., 2011).
carbon loss confirming the positive impact of zeolite addition on The rapid increase in temperature and high NH+ 4 -N at the beginning
enhanced microbial activities. has inhibited the nitrifying bacterial activity and hence the NO−3 -N
production was limited in all treatments (Fig. 3b) (Zhou et al., 2018).
Under high ammoniacal N, less production of nitrite and nitrate has
Table 1 been observed previously (Bautista et al., 2011). The NO−3 -N contents
Model kinetic parameters determined from three kinetic models. were found to be increasing after 10 days in control treatment R1 due to
R1-0% Z R2-2.5% Z R3-5% Z R4-10% Z the mesophilic condition which enhanced the nitrification process. In
Cumulative CO2-Cexp (%) 44.23 54.23 59.98 62.54 the zeolite amended treatments (R2-R4), NO−3 -N contents were
increased after 14 days of FWD composting. The NO−3 -N content was
First-first-order model
~80 mg/kg dm in control whereas zeolite amendment had produced
Cumulative CO2-Cpred (%) 44.22 54.22 59.21 62.43 ~20–40 mg/kg dm. Under aerobic conditions, possibilities of N2O, NO,
Cr (%) 70.72 69.22 72.65 72.35
or N2 emission through denitrification needs further investigation (Lim
Cs (%) 29.28 30.78 27.35 27.65
kr (day¡1) 0.348 0.3993 0.5124 0.5477 et al., 2017).
ks (day¡1) 0.0826 0.0519 0.1038 0.094 NH3 emission is inevitable during NH+ 4 -N enriched FWD composting
χ2 1.43 1.36 10.15 6.05 process which causes environmental hazards as well as reduces the
RMSE 1.04 1.01 1.96 0.97 quality of compost (Manu et al., 2021a). Among the natural adsorbents,
EF 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99
zeolites are found to be effective in NH3 reduction (Soudejani et al.,
Chen and Hashimoto model 2019). In this study, alkalinity and high NH+ 4 -N in the feedstock resulted
Cumulative CO2-Cpred (%) 47.69 56.61 61.87 64.05 in higher NH3 emissions during the initial stages of composting. This
R 0.31 0.24 0.215 0.185 corroborates with the previous studies wherein the vigorous NH3
K 84 86 90 97
emission was observed at the early phase of composting (Lim et al.,
μm (day¡1) 4.5 6 8 8.5
χ2 4.79 2.03 1.36 1.27
2017). The NH3 emission was significantly different among the treat­
RMSE 1.89 1.23 1.01 0.98 ments (P < 0.05), it was higher in treatments R1 and R2 compared to
EF 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99 treatments R3 and R4 indicating 5% and 10% zeolite amendment could
Levi-Minzi model significantly mitigate NH3 emission during FWD composting (Fig. 3c
and d). Based on the mass balance, it was found that NH3 loss of initial
Cumulative CO2-Cpred (%) 49.71 58.82 64.68 67.37
k (mg/kg day) 8.31 10.93 14.29 14.67 nitrogen was 2.5%, 2.2%, 1.8%, and 1.6% in treatments R1, R2, R3, and
m 0.48 0.45 0.41 0.41 R4, respectively. Higher dosages of zeolite (5% and 10%) amendment
χ2 7.23 5.77 5.71 10.67 mitigated NH3 emission by 28–36%. During FWD composting, 10%
RMSE 2.33 2.08 2.07 2.09 biochar (Manu et al., 2021b) and 15% activated carbon (Wang et al.,
EF 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99
2022) were found to decrease NH3 emission by 41% and 34%,

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M.K. Manu et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 371 (2022) 133408

Fig. 3. Nitrogen transformation during composting process (a) Changes in TKN; (b) Daily NH3 emission; (c) Cumulative NH3 emission; (d) NO3 content; (e) NO2
content; (f) Total nitrogen loss and (g) Reduction in nitrogen loss with respect to control treatment (R1 = 0% zeolite; R2 = 2.5% zeolite; R3 = 5% zeolite; R4 =
10% zeolite).

respectively, which shows the potential of zeolite on mitigation of NH3 parameter i.e., C/N ratio. During the FWD composting process, the
similar to other amendments. Villasenor et al. (2011) study showed NH3 utilization of carbonaceous and nitrogenous substrates for microbial
loss of ~55% during composting of sewage sludge with 10% zeolite and proliferation has resulted in a decrease in C/N ratio with composting
the loss was further reduced to ~35% with a further increase in zeolite time in all treatments (Fig. 4a). After 42 days, C/N ratio was reduced to
concentration to 40%. Al-Jabi et al. (2008) and Wu et al. (2020) re­ ~13 in R2-R4 with zeolite while it was ~15 in control treatment indi­
ported mitigation of NH3 emission by 41% and 44% with 5% zeolite cating all the treatments meet the C/N ratio criteria of <20 for mature
during composting of food waste and poultry manure, respectively. compost, however, the differences between the treatments were not
The total nitrogen loss was found to be decreasing with an increase in significant (P > 0.05) (HKORC, 2021).
zeolite concentration based on nitrogen balance (Fig. 3e). The total ni­ SGI is one of the widely used tests for assessing compost quality as it
trogen loss in different treatments was in the order: R1 (12.3%) > R2 indicates the phytotoxicity of compost. SGI values of more than 80% is
(10.5%) > R3 (8.1%) > R4 (7.5%). Li et al. (2022) reported 5.9–7.8% of an indication of compost maturity and can be used as a soil conditioner
nitrogen loss during FWD composting with 5–15% zeolite whereas (Wong et al., 2017). In zeolite amended treatments, the combined effect
Turan (2008) reported 11% and 9% of total nitrogen losses reduction of enhanced microbial decomposition, biodegradation rate, and reduced
with 5% and 10% zeolite, respectively during composting of poultry NH+ 4 -N resulted in an elevation in SGI values and the prescribed HKORC
litter. Wang et al. (2017) suggested 10% zeolite as the optimum con­ standard limits of 80% could be achieved within 14 days of composting
centration as the N loss was only 28%. In the present study N loss of compared to 28 days in control treatment R1 (P < 0.05) (Fig. 4b). The
34–39% was seen with 5–10% zeolite dosage (Fig. 3f). Zeolite amend­ SGI trend showed that the FWD could be recycled into less/no phyto­
ment strongly affected the nitrogen transformations during FWD com­ toxic compost using zeolite as an additive. Previous studies have
posting, and 5% and 10% zeolite amendment showed operative in demonstrated that the addition of 10% biochar (Manu et al., 2021b) and
reducing the nitrogen loss as well as NH+ 4 -N toxicity from the com­ 15% activated carbon (Wang et al., 2022) could also enhance the FWD
posting matrix. composting and the composting duration could be reduced by 50% by
achieving the required SGI value in a short duration. Considering the
economics of these additives, zeolite could serve as a low cost amend­
3.4. Compost maturity evaluation
ment for effective FWD composting.
During composting, mineralization and humification are considered
The maturity of compost was evaluated by the most commonly used

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M.K. Manu et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 371 (2022) 133408

Fig. 4. Changes in maturity indices (a) C/N ratio and (b) SGI during composting (R1 = 0% zeolite; R2 = 2.5% zeolite; R3 = 5% zeolite; R4 = 10% zeolite).

as the major biochemical pathways which resulted in the formation of zeolite dosages on nitrogen transformation as NH3 emission and TN
stable compounds called humic substances (Manu et al., 2019). To conservation were prominent as the control demonstrated its strong
evaluate the production of humic substances, E4/E6 ratio was measured effect compared to zeolite amended treatments. Furthermore, the
during the co-composting process wherein E4 (465 nm) represents the adsorption of NH+ 4 -N on zeolite surface or its transformation into
beginning of organic matter degradation and E6 (665 nm) specifies the nontoxic forms by enhanced microbial activities significantly affected
production of polymerized groups (Zittel et al., 2018). E4/E6 ratio was the total nitrogen content in the compost thereby directly influencing
found to be decreasing in all treatments with composting duration the compost quality. Besides, the similar effect of NH3 emission indi­
indicating the inverse relationship with the aromaticity and molecular cated the dynamics of NH+ 4 -N and NH3 equilibrium during FWD com­
weight of compost (Fig. 4c) (Uyguner et al., 2004). However, the posting. The decline in NH+4 -N and NH3 emission effect in R2-R4 showed
decrease in control and 2.5% zeolite treatments were significantly the positive impact of zeolite amendment on their transformation dy­
different from 5 to 10% zeolite amended treatments (P < 0.05). The namics. Although the zeolite amendment positively influenced the hu­
E4/E6 ratio decreased from ~12–12.3 to ~10 in control and R2 whereas, mification index SUVA280, its influence on nitrogen dynamics was
in treatments with 5% and 10% zeolite, E4/E6 ratio was reduced to less higher compared to SUVA280 indicating the significance of zeolite
than 8. Typically, E4/E6 ratio higher than 8 indicates the presence of addition on nitrogen conservation during FWD composting (Liu et al.,
non-humified material such as proteins and carbohydrates (Vieyra et al., 2022). Overall, the zeolite amendment could strongly influence the ni­
2009). These findings demonstrated that the amendment of zeolite at trogen dynamics of FWD composting and higher zeolite dosages could
higher concentrations (5% and 10%) enhances the FWD mineralization mitigate nitrogen loss and produce quality compost in a short duration.
and humification thereby increasing the compost quality with stable
humic substances. Similar observations were reported during the 4. Conclusions
co-composting of chicken manure and paddy husk amended with zeolite
(Latifah et al., 2015). The present study demonstrated that the NH+ 4 -N rich FWD could be
co-composted to reduce its phytotoxicity and to produce nitrogen-rich
3.5. Zeolite amendment on nitrogen dynamics and compost maturity quality compost. Amending FWD with zeolite provides multiple bene­
fits such as enhanced porosity for better aeration and microbial
To understand the causal relationship between the influential pa­ decomposition, and conservation of nitrogen by mitigating NH3 emis­
rameters, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used. For this pur­ sion. The zeolite dosages of 5% and 10% could significantly improve the
pose, SEMs were constructed to examine the effect of zeolite on composting properties of FWD and enhance the carbon mineralization
variations in TKN, NH+ 4 -N, NH3 along with SUVA280 and SGI (Fig. 5). by 27–29% by increasing the degradation rate by ~36%. In addition,
The model estimates were evaluated by chi-square test (p > 0.05), GFI higher zeolite dosages showed superior performance in mitigating
>0.90 and RMSEA <0.05 (Zhao et al., 2018). In addition, the stan­ 28–36% of NH3 emission thereby reducing the nitrogen loss by 34–39%.
dardized total effect of zeolite amendment on compost quality (i.e., SGI) The results of NH+ 4 -N content and SGI values suggested that the phyto­
was calculated using direct and indirect effects of individual parameters toxic nature of FWD could be reduced to a permissible level within 15
used in the model. days of composting upon 5% and 10% zeolite amendment. The future
The SEM results showed that the influence of composting duration studies should focus on the enhancement of nitrification during FWD
was positively correlated with the zeolite dosages that were directly composting to further reduce the NH3 emission and possible N2O
inducing the nitrogen dynamics and compost quality. The standardized emission. Furthermore, the zeolite mixed compost should be evaluated
total effects clearly indicated the effect of zeolite dosages on composting to understand the slow nutrient releasing capacity of compost in soil
time. The higher dosages of zeolite (5% and 10%) significantly reduced environment to draw the beneficiary aspects of zeolite amendment in
composting time for compost maturity as the total effect in these FWD composting.
treatments were greater than in R1 and R2. The influence of NH+ 4 -N and

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M.K. Manu et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 371 (2022) 133408

Fig. 5. SEMs showing the correlation between nitrogen dynamics, humification index and compost quality in treatments R1 (a & e), R2 (b & f), R3 (c & g) and R4 (d
& h). (R1 = 0% zeolite; R2 = 2.5% zeolite; R3 = 5% zeolite; R4 = 10% zeolite).

CRediT authorship contribution statement Declaration of competing interest

M.K. Manu: Conceptualization, Investigation, Formal analysis, The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Chen Wang: interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
Investigation, Formal analysis. Dongyi Li: Writing – review & editing. the work reported in this paper.
Sunita Varjani: Writing – review & editing. Jonathan W.C. Wong:
Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Project
administration, Funding acquisition.

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M.K. Manu et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 371 (2022) 133408

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