Maintaining Favorable Fermentation Conditions in Sargassum Liquid Fertilizer Production Using Siphon in A Two-Containers System Resulting in Acceptable Levels of Heavy Metals Nurhayati (a*), Anjar Purba Asmara (b), Sparisoma Viridi (c), and Feizia Huslina (a)
a) Biology Department, UIN Ar-Raniry
Jl. Syekh Abdur Rauf, Kopelma Darussalam, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
*nurhayati.sururi[at]ar-raniry.ac.id
b) Chemistry Department, UIN Ar-Raniry
Jl. Syekh Abdur Rauf, Kopelma Darussalam, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
c) Physics Department, Bandung Institute of Technology
Jalan Ganesha 10, Bandung 40132, Indonesia
Abstract
Siphon in the form of simple u-shape was used to connect to two 600 ml disposed plastic bottles of mineral water called container A and B. Container A served as decomposter drum, while B was an aeration drum. In the decomposter drum, Sargassum porridge mixed with EM4 (effective microorganisms 4), organic nutrients, and water was placed allowing an anaerobic fermentation to occur within 25 days. In the aeration drum, we put an acceptable volume of fresh water. Between these two containers, the siphon was set to connect the air in each container above the suspension. There were 14 different configurations including siphon with three different diameters (0.5, 1, 1.5 cm), four different lengths (16, 18, 20, 22 cm), and three different connection (connected to aeration drum, opened to air, closed). The last two configurations did not need the siphon. During the fermentation process, gas and heat were perceptibly released from the suspension in the decomposter drum. Produced gas was flowing to the connect nearby drum and creating bubble whereas the air from the other drum was unable to enter the first drum leading to maintainance of the condition of fermentation process. After 25 days, the mixture was filtered. As the one of main challenging aspects in production sargassum liquid fertilizer is the considerable numbers of heavy metals, therefore, we measured the some heavy and transition metals level extracted in the lyes from 14 configurations to estimate the safety level of the product compared to those mentioned in the Regulation of the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture No 70. All data were below the limit whereby two configurations gave the least values of potentially toxic elements, which might be linked to the role of siphon in giving a favourable condition for preventing the release of the heavy metals trapped in the cell walls.
Keywords: Sargassum- Siphon- Liquid Fertilizer- Plactic Bottle- Heavy Metals
