Abstract

VICENCIO-DE LA ROSA, Ma. Guadalupe; PEREZ-LOPEZ, Ma. Elena; MEDINA-HERRERA, Elizabeth  and  MARTINEZ-PRADO, Ma. Adriana. Compost and vermicompost production of sewage sludge of a slaughterhouse wastewater treatment plant. Rev. Int. Contam. Ambient [online]. 2011, vol.27, n.3, pp.263-270. ISSN 0188-4999.

An investigation oriented to compost and vermicompost production was conducted using sewage sludge from a municipal wastewater treatment plant of a slaughterhouse at Durango city. From 75 m³ of sludge a production of 10.9 tons of compost were obtained in 150 days with 2.06 % of TKN, 0.16 % Pd and 0.13% K_d, and at a production cost of 0.51 Mexican pesos/kg competing with the 2.3 Mexican pesos /kg of the potting soil for gardening sold at the locality. As for the vermicompost, 12.5 tons were obtained in 210 days with a lower nutritional quality, 1.4 % of TKN, 0.12 % Pd and 0.15% K_d, with a production cost of 1.2 Mexican pesos/kg; resulting in a lower profit. However, vermicomposting was the best system of production if considering the sale of the earthworm.

Keywords : biosolids; composting; vermicomposting.