1. Production of Biomass from Organic Waste
Cecilia Lalander
Project members: Björn Vinnerås, Allan Komakech
From Waste to Value

2. Treatment aim
 Short-cut route in
agriculture
 Higher use of manure
resources
 Generate animal protein
for use in animal feed
 Improve hygienic quality

3.  Kampala is the home of
- 4,000 cows
- 3,000 goats
- 9,000 pigs
- 250,000 chickens
- 1,300,000 people
 60% of all manure
dumped or discarded

4. Vermicomposting system
 High mass reduction
 Inactivate pathogens?
 Worms
— 70% protein
 NH3 sensitive
 Manually harvested
 Low maintenance

5. Vermicomposting unit
 1 x 1 x 0.3-1.5 m
 Vertical system
 2-3 000 worms to start-up
 Run by a farmer at the Makere test farm
— Eudrilus eugeniae (African nightcrawler)
 Feeding ~5 kg m-2 day -1
 Accumulate less than 0.5 cm day-1

6. Mass flow in unit
 4 months feeding
— 500 kg
 >16 000 worms
— >20 kg feed
 Feed to biomass
conversion rate 4.5%
 Material degradation
— 36 % into CO2
— 60 % reduction

7. Biomass and fertiliser

8. BSF system

9. Experimental set-up
BSF
treatment
Faeces
BSF
larvae
Indicators and pathogens
a) Salmonella Typhimurium
b) Enterococcus faecalis
c) Bacteriophage φX174
d) Ascaris suum eggs
Prepupae
Analysed for
pathogen and
indicator precence
Residue
Pathogen and indicator
concentrations monitored as a
function of time

10. Reduction of pathogens
Inactivation in BSF-treatment unit (squares) compared to storage (triangles)
Salmonella spp. Enterococcus spp. фX174
d) No reduction in concentration of Ascaris suum eggs
No effect on the inactivation of Ascaris suum eggs
C. Lalander, S. Diener, M. E. Magri, C. Zurbrügg, A. Lindström, B.
Vinnerås, Science of the Total Environment 2013, 458–460, 312-318.

11. Effectiveness BSF-treatment
 Dry Mass Reduction
— 73%
 Salmonella spp.
— 7 log10 reduction
 Post-treatment of
residue
— Ammonia sanitisation
 Processing prepupae
— Drying

12. In the process

13. Summary
 High protein production
— 4.5% - 10% feed to biomass
conversion
 Greatly reduced waste amount
— 60-75% reduction
 Inactivation of some critical
bacterial pathogens
— Salmonella spp.
 Reduced need for land
application of fertiliser
— Short-cut in nutrient recycling

14. Publications from project
 Information brochure for
farmers
 MSc
— 1 Finalised
— 1 On-going
 Papers
— 1 Published
— 2 Accepted
— 1 Submitted
— 2 Manuscripts
 Other
— 1 Newspaper article UNT
— 2 Local radio interviews