FUOYE Journal of Engineering and Technology, Volume 4, Issue 1, March 2019 ISSN: 2579-0625 (Online), 2579-0617 (Paper) FUOYEJET © 2019 70 http://dx.doi.org/10.46792/fuoyejet.v4i1.311 engineering.fuoye.edu.ng/journal Effect of Double-T and V-shaped Pipe Configurations and Perforations on the Quality of Chicken Litter Compost *Timothy D. Akpenpuun, Ademola A. Ajayi-Banji, Kamoru A. Adeniran and Mahmud T. Ahmed Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria akpenpuun.td@unilorin.edu.ng | ajayibanjiademola@gmail.com|kadeniran_2003@yahoo.com|mahmoodtior@gmail.com Abstract: Livestock waste management has received much attention because of the huge volume and instability. One of the good management practices adopted to address this menace is composting. This study examined the effect of specialized passively aerated composters on some physicochemical properties of chicken litter. The composter is made up of six double T and V shaped pipe with three different perforation diameters of 15, 20 and 25 mm. Pile configuration of the developed composters had marked effect on total nitrogen content (p≤0.05) of the compost subjected to 90 days composting time. The composters had uniform air distribution as pile temperature was not significantly affected by pile configuration, perforation size, and their interactions. Furthermore, both T and V shaped pipe structures reached a thermophilic temperature of 49.0 and 67 o C respectively and the compost stabilized in the 12 th week. From the agronomic point of view, V-shaped pipe outperformed double inverted T pipes with perforation sizes of 15 and 20 mm. Overall result from this study suggests that double-T and V-shaped composters are feasible composting systems that can enhance biodegradation, maturation, and stability of chicken litter. Keyword: compost, litter, composter, double-T, pile, perforation. —————————— ◆ —————————— 1 INTRODUCTION astes pose serious environmental and health concerns; promotes insect vector proliferation, causes odour problem and a nuisance to sight. Its deposition in water bodies equally enhances aquatic weeds development and flooding. Other environmental impact categorisations are global warming, depletion of abiotic resources, acidification and eutrophication, hence the management is imperative. In Nigerian cities, waste management is a major environmental quandary, which is as a result of population increase, limited fiscal resource, low technical know-how on waste management (Martins, 2005). Also, indiscriminate industrial planning, increased urbanization, poverty and lack of willpower by both environmental agencies and individuals seem to have had marked impact on the massive level of pollution from waste generated in Nigeria (Ogunwande, 2010). Solid waste generation in Nigeria is in the range of 0.44 to 0.66 kg/ capita /day and about 25 million tonnes/annum, with household and commercial centres contributing about 70% of total urban waste burden (Okwesili, 2016). About two-thirds of household and municipal wastes are indiscriminately dumped on the streets and in the drains thus posing severe environmental and health hazards. Hence, solid waste management intends to govern the generation, collection, storage, transfer and transportation, processing, and disposal in harmony with public health, economics, engineering, conservation, aesthetics, and other environmental considerations. This can practically be achieved by employing solid waste management methods such as waste minimisation, reuse, recycling and recovery. Composting falls into the recycling category (Akpenpuun et al., 2016). * Corresponding Author Composting is the microbial decomposition of organic matter under controlled conditions. Some composting technologies have been developed to convert organic solid wastes into compost and organo-mineral fertilizers. Composting improves waste handling characteristics through volume or weight reduction, pathogens death, nutrients and organic matter stabilization (Barrington et al., 2003). Hence, conversion of organic solid wastes into compost and organo-mineral fertilizers is a practical approach to tackling the rising solid waste concerns. The major problem in livestock industries, particularly poultry, is the large-scale of wastes generated on a daily basis. The accumulation of these wastes poses a high hazard to the environment. Hence, the disposal of these wastes using environmentally and economically sustainable waste management technologies and techniques is a conceivable panacea (Asuquo et al., 2012). However, some waste generated by the livestock industries are currently utilised on agricultural land as a source of nutrients and soil amendment, despite this, a considerable volume remains unused. Hence, a significant gap exists between waste generation and use that has resulted in giant heaps of livestock wastes, predominantly from poultry farmlands (Akpenpuun et al., 2017). The continuous accumulation of these wastes leads to environmental pollution. This study investigated the effects of configuration and perforation size on some physio-chemical properties of chicken litter using passive aeration composting to address this challenge. 2 MATERIALS AND METHODS 2.1 THE CONFIGURATION OF COMPOST BINS The experiment was carried out under a shaded area, to prevent abiotic factors interference, at the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, University of Ilorin, Ilorin Nigeria. Physio-chemical data obtained from the experiment were subjected to statistical analyses using SPSS 20.0 version. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to compare disparities in compost properties, where significance was W