TEMPERATURE AND TIME REQUIREMENTS FOR THE REDUCTION OF BACTERIA

ABSTRACT

The use of digestate as a fertiliser to offset inorganic fertiliser is thus of major economic and ecological importance however, pathogenic microbes may persist in the digestate resulting not to be safe to the environment. This study was aimed at determining the impact of timetemperature requirement for the reduction of bacteria in cow dung digestate and its safety as a biofertilizer. Cattle Rumen Digestate slurry (CRD) was obtained from National Centre for Energy and Environment in the University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. The digestate was subjected to varying degrees of temp 0, 55, 60, 70 and 80 ℃ for a duration of 0,20,30, 40 and 60 min. The analyses carried out were bacterial load using nutrient agar (NA) and eosin methylene blue agar (EMB), physicochemical and heavy metal content.