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TECHNICAL REPORTS

Waste Management

Evidence for Struvite in Poultry Litter: Effect of Storage and Drying

^a Dep. of Earth and Environment, Univ. of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
^b Dep. of Plant and Soil Sciences, Univ. of Delaware, 152 Townsend Hall, Newark, DE 19711

^* Corresponding author (s.hunger{at}earth.leeds.ac.uk).

Received for publication June 21, 2007. The use of spectroscopic techniques (especially phosphorus-31 nuclear magnetic resonance [³¹P-NMR] and X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopy) has recently advanced the analysis of the speciation of P in poultry litter (PL) and greatly enhanced our understanding of changes in P pools in PL that receive alum (aluminum sulfate) to reduce water-soluble P and control ammonia emissions from poultry houses. Questions remain concerning changes of P species during long-term storage, drying, or after application of PL to cropland or for other uses, such as turfgrass. In this study, we investigated a set of six PL samples (of which three were alum-amended and three were unamended) that had been characterized previously. The P speciation was analyzed using solid-state ³¹P-NMR spectroscopy, and the mineralogy was analyzed by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) after storing the samples moist and dried for up to 5 yr under controlled conditions. The magnesium ammonium phosphate mineral struvite was identified in all but one PL samples. Struvite concentrations were generally lower in dried samples (14%) than in samples stored moist (23 and 26%). The moist samples also had higher concentrations of phosphate bound to aluminum hydroxides. Solid-state NMR spectroscopy was in general more sensitive than XRD in detecting and quantifying P species. Although phosphate associated with calcium and aluminum made up a large proportion of P species, they were not detected by XRD.

Abbreviations: CP-MAS, cross-polarization, magic angle spinning • DCP, dicalcium phosphate • DI, deionized • HAP, hydroxyapatite • MAS, magic angle spinning • NMR, nuclear magnetic resonance • OCP, octacalcium phosphate • PL, poultry litter • TCP, tricalcium phosphate • XANES, x-ray absorption near edge structure • XRD, X-ray diffraction