Herb powder additive slashes nitrous oxide from manure composting
Duan YJ, Wu HS, Yang JY, Zhou ZT, Shi TR
Composting
Composting is a backyard staple for turning waste into soil food, and this study shows that a simple plant-based additive can change which microbes run the show and how much greenhouse gas your pile releases into the air.
Researchers added powder from a plant called Polygonum multiflorum, a well-known Chinese medicinal herb, to piles of composting pig manure. The powder changed which bacteria and fungi took over the compost, and this shift dramatically cut emissions of nitrous oxide, a gas far more potent than carbon dioxide for trapping heat. Methane went up instead, but the overall warming effect from the pile still dropped because nitrous oxide reductions outweighed the methane increase.
Key Findings
Cumulative N2O emissions dropped 56.7%, 63.1%, and 71.8% at low, medium, and high herb powder doses respectively.
Cumulative CH4 emissions rose 51.8%, 381.1%, and 593.1% at the same doses, but overall global warming potential still fell 56.6-71.3%.
Temperature and ammonium levels were key drivers of N2O emissions, while pH and moisture content drove CH4 emissions.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Adding powder from a traditional Chinese herb to composting pig manure cut the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide by up to 72% by shifting which microbes thrive in the pile, though it also increased methane emissions, offering a net win for reducing overall warming impact.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Regulation mechanism of N2O and CH4 emissions during the pig manure composting amended with Polygonum Multiflorum Thunb.
To mitigate N2O and CH4 emissions during pig manure composting, this study innovatively employed Polygonum multiflorum Thunb (PM, a traditional Chinese herb) powder to regulate microbial community ...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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Pleuropterus multiflorus is a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family Polygonaceae native to central and southern China, Hainan, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Thailand. It is known by the English common names tuber fleeceflower and Chinese (climbing) knotweed. It is known as he shou wu (何首烏) in...