Potential of Cheese Waste (Whey) as Liquid Organic Fertilizer
M. Istnaeny Hudha, Nanik Astuti Rahman, Anitarakhmi Handaratri

Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Industrial Technology, National Institute of Technology, Jl. Raya Karanglo KM. 02 Tasikmadu, Lowokwaru, Malang East Java-Indonesia.

Abstract

. Liquid organic fertilizer is a type of fertilizer in liquid form that easily dissolves in the soil and brings important elements in increasing agricultural soil fertility by providing sufficient nutrients needed by plants. The basic ingredients of this fertilizer are cheese waste (whey), vegetables waste, fruits waste, that combined with other ingredients as a complement to get organic fertilizer according to the Indonesian National Standard (SNI). Liquid organic fertilizer is made by combining protein sources, glucose sources and bacteria sources. The source of protein used is cheese waste (whey), while the source of glucose is molasses and the source of the waste is organic waste in the form of a combination of banana peels, cabbage, mustard greens, goat manure. Variations of whey used were fresh whey after 1 day, after 2 days, and after 3 days while the variation of fermentation time was 7, 10, 15 and 21 days. The type of decomposer used is Effective Microorganism 4 solution which can be abbreviated as EM4. Thus the purposes of this research are to find the optimum composition and time of fermentation for making liquid organic fertilizer. The results showed that the optimum fermentation time was 15 days with the best composition of fresh whey + 2 days left with a weight ratio of 1:1 organic waste and vegetable waste and a total NPK content of 2,9063%.

Keywords: organic waste, whey, fermentation

Topic: Food Diversification and Technologies