Biodegradability of fecal nitrogen in composting process

Shinya Hotta *, Naoyuki Funamizu

Department of Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Kita-13, Nishi-8, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8628, Japan

Abstract
Biodegradability of fecal nitrogen was studied in composting process. Fecal nitrogen was subdivided into two fractions: a type originally inert in biological activity (NXI), and a slowly biodegradable one (NXS). During the composting process, an inert type of organic
matter (NXIB) was reproduced by endogenous respiration of heterotrophic microorganism. Evaluations for fecal nitrogen formed a conclusion of 75% (NXS) and 25% (NXI), respectively. It was estimated that the NXIB could be 9% of initial fecal nitrogen. Thus, approximately 34% (NXI + NXIB) of initial fecal nitrogen remained in the composting material (mixture of sawdust and feces) as biologically
inert type of organic nitrogen.

Keywords: Fecal nitrogen; Biodegradability; Aerobic biodegradation; Sawdust as a matrix

1. Introduction
Since toilet waste contains high amount of nutrient and
organic matter (Almeida et al., 1999), a toilet system is a
key piece in the technology of decentralized wastewater
treatment system. Lopez et al. (2005) reported that composting toilet with sawdust matrix took a role for onsite black
water treatment. Hotta et al. (2004, 2006) reported that
source separation of feces from urine could improve the
recovery eciency of nitrogen from the composting toilet
system.
The composting process simultaneously transforms carbon and nitrogen by means of heterotrophic microorganisms. Huang et al. (2006) have elaborated how carbon
components in swine manure transformed to humic and
fulvic acid in the composting process with sawdust. Lopez
et al. (2002) have shown biodegradability of fecal carbon
quantitatively. However, studies for fecal nitrogen transformation in the composting process, especially on the biodegradability, have not been reported well in the literature.
*

Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +81 117066272.

E-mail addresses: zhenye@eng.hokudai.ac.jp (S. Hotta), funamizu@
eng.hokudai.ac.jp (N. Funamizu).
0960-8524/$ - see front matter 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2006.10.045

The evolution of fecal nitrogen attending the carbon transformation provides more practical knowledge for nitrogen
control in the composting toilet system. Thus, the aim of
this study was to characterize and summarize fecal nitrogen
attending the carbon transformation in the composting
process.
2. Methods
2.1. Batch tests for fecal composting process in the sawdust
matrix
Nine batch tests were performed at dierent organic
loading condition as listed in Table 1. The FS ratio (feces
sawdust ratio) on Table 1 describes the fecal load in the
composting material. Feces were obtained from one
healthy young male at 28 years old with well balanced diet.
The feces collected in a plastic vessel were stored in a refrigerator at 5 C for a couple of days until a start of batch
test. As listed in Table 1, similar qualities of feces were
obtained in nine batch tests. The sawdust for batch tests
was obtained from composting reactor operated for half
a year. Since residual organic matter in the used sawdust
might contribute to biological activity in the composting

S. Hotta, N. Funamizu / Bioresource Technology 98 (2007) 34123414

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Table 1
Components and conditions for compositing material

RUN1
RUN2
RUN3
RUN4
RUN5
RUN6
RUN7
RUN8
a

FS ratio (%)

Feces (g-dry)

Sawdust (g-dry)

Fecal C (mg-C/g-dry)

Fecal N (mg-N/g-dry)

Fecal M.C.a (%)

Sawdust M.C.a (%)

20
5
15
20
20
15
10
2

18.0
5.1
14.1
17.3
17.3
14.1
9.8
2.3

90
103
94
87
87
94
92
102

66.8
66.8
61.4
46.2
61.7
65.4
65.4
62.7

468
468
478
459
487
489
489
464

87.9
87.9
84.3
86.6
86.3
80.2
80.2
90.0

34.4
34.4
34.4
34.4
34.4
34.4
34.4
34.4

M.C.: Moisture content.

material (mixture of the used sawdust and feces), the sawdust was stored in a freezer at 30 C until usage for batch
tests. Thus same quality of the sawdust as a matrix was
provided in every batch test.
The experimental device used in this study (Lopez et al.,
2005) enabled to control several important factors: the
moisture content was roughly controlled from 55% to
65%; the reaction temperature was xed at 50 C; air supply into the composting material was prepared at 100 ml/
min. In this device, data indicating the biological activity
was monitored during the experiment: OUR (oxygen utilization rate), CO2PR (CO2 production rate) and ANVR
(ammonium nitrogen volatilized rate). As a reference,
batch test without feces was also performed.
2.2. Sample measurements
Analysis of the composting material was conducted in
initial and nal stage of the tests: total weight, moisture
content and content of nitrogen and carbon in the composting material. Ammonia nitrogen in the extraction of the
composting material was also determined. Carbon and
nitrogen in the solid sample were determined by gas chromatography on the NC analyzer (SUMIGRAPH NC1000: SHIMADZU CORPORATION).
Since the composting material was mixture of feces and
sawdust, sawdust used in this study contained residual
organic matter with nitrogen in the preparation. To eliminate their contribution, data of the reference by using sawdust without feces was subtracted from the one of each
runs by using composting material. Thus fecal contribution
to the composting material was calculated in (1) ammonia,
decomposed organic carbon and nitrogen in the composting material, (2) integrated OUR, CO2PR and ANVR.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Characterization of fecal carbon during the composting
process
Fig. 1 shows the time course of the OUR obtained in
this study. The OUR increased and decreased rapidly
because the consumption of readily biodegradable organic

Fig. 1. Time course of the OUR in RUN1 to RUN9.

matter led to substrate limitation (Lopez et al., 2002). As

seen in Fig. 1, the OUR proles diered from each other
especially in case of RUN3 and RUN4. However fecal
components did not show signicant dierence. After nine
days, every OUR prole had reached the quite low level
until the end of the tests, it was therefore concluded that
the most biodegradable carbon component had already
decomposed to CO2 or biologically inert type until the
end of the tests.
No nitrication was observed because the estimated
CO2 production rate by using OUR and measured CO2
production rate were similar. An absence of nitrication
during the aerobic biodegradation of feces agreed with
results reported by Lopez et al. (2005). Biodegradability
of fecal carbon in the composting process was evaluated
by two dierent approaches of integration of the OUR proles and mass reduction of the fecal carbon in the composting material. Approximately 80% of initial fecal carbon
decomposed to CO2 and 20% remained as biologically inert
type. The original components of fecal carbons for the biodegradable (XS) and biologically inert type (XI) were calculated by the procedure proposed by Lopez et al. (2002).
During the composting process, the biologically inert
type of carbon (XIB) was reproduced by endogenous respiration of the heterotrophic microorganisms. Thus, total
amount of biologically inert type of the carbon after composting process could be mixture of XI and XIB. Calculation results showed that fecal carbon originally consists
of XS (85%) and XI (15%).

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S. Hotta, N. Funamizu / Bioresource Technology 98 (2007) 34123414

Since 34% of nitrogen was estimated to remain as biologically inert type by the decomposition rate of 66% as
shown in Fig. 2, the 14 mg of fecal nitrogen provided the
4.9 mg nitrogen of the inert type. The nitrogen of 4.9 mg
was substituted to the values in fecal carbon of XI and
XIB. Then Eq. (2) was obtained:
15NXI 5NXIB 4:9

Fig. 2. Biodegradability of fecal nitrogen in the compositing process.

3.2. Nitrogen transformation during the composting process

of human feces
After composting process, three types of nitrogen were
observed: (a) ammonia in the composting material, (b)
ammonia gas captured in the sulfuric acid and (c) nitrogen
in the biologically inert type of organic matter (mixture of
NXI and NXIB). Ammonied nitrogen against the input
fecal nitrogen is shown in Fig. 2. The ammonied nitrogen
was calculated by sum of (a) and (b) as described above,
which showed high correlation coecient and approximately 66% of initial fecal nitrogen decomposed to ammonia during the composting process. Data on remained
nitrogen in the composting material at the end of the batch
tests were also plotted in Fig. 2. In spite of low correlation
coecient, approximately 31% of nitrogen remained as
biologically inert type. It was, therefore, concluded that
mass of fecal nitrogen in this study almost balanced and
approximately 66% of fecal nitrogen decomposed to
ammonia, while 34% remained in the composting material
as an inert type.

Since it was assumed that the NXI was equal to NXIB,

Eq. (2) can be transformed to following equation:
15NXI + 5NXI = 4.9. Thus the value of NXI was calculated
to 0.245 g-N/g-C. By substituting the NXI in Eq. (1), the
value of NXS was found to be approximately 0.121 g-N/
g-C. The study showed that 85% of initial fecal carbon
was biodegradable in the composting process whereas
Lopez et al. (2002) had reported that its biodegradability
was 80%.
4. Conclusions
From the results it was concluded that there was high
correlation coecient in the composting process and
approximately 66% of initial fecal nitrogen decomposed
to ammonia. After composting process, approximately
34% of initial fecal nitrogen remained as biologically inert
type. Further studies for characterization of fecal nitrogen
by using other feces might contribute to determine reasonable range for its biodegradability.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Prof. Minoru Terazawa
(Hokkaido University) for his helps in sawdust preparation
and Mr. Tomohiro Noguchi who had great contribution to
develop an experimental device for evaluation of the
ANVR. This work has been supported by CREST of JST
(Japan Science and Technology Corporation).
References

3.3. Characterization of organic nitrogen while following the

transformation of carbon
Calculation for determination of NXS, NXI and NXIB
was conducted. To simplify the calculation process, it
was assumed that two types of biologically inert carbon
of XI and XIB contained same character. Two unknown
factors were therefore prepared: NXI(=NXIB) and NXS
whose unit was g-N/g-C. Preliminary analysis on feces
showed that 14 mg of fecal nitrogen was provided to every
100 mg of fecal carbon with more than 0.97 of correlation
coecient with dierent 22 fecal samples. Following calculation was conducted on an assumption that provided
100 mg of fecal carbon. Then Eq. (1) was obtained:
15NXI 85NXS 14

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