Effect of Bamboo Vinegar on Control of Nitrogen Loss in Vegetable Waste and Manure Composting
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments on Manuscript IRWA-D-14-00047
Title: Effect of bamboo vinegar on nitrogen loss control of vegetable 2 waste and manure composting
This study investigates the use of bamboo vinegar to control nitrogen loss during composting of plant residues and manure, and describes the positive effects of vinegar on nitrogen loss during composting.
The work is well organized and generally well written.
Although overall the manuscript presents an interesting and original approach, the following points should be amended before the publication of the article:
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Many of the references used in the state of the art are over a decade old and are therefore unlikely to reflect the current state of the art.
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The increase in moisture during composting, which can reduce the amount of oxygen available and thus microbial metabolism, is not sufficiently explained.
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The data and explanations of the experiments are clearly discussed and exposed. However, discussion is poor and limited at description of data.
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The conclusions reported are unusable for industrial composters due to very small reactor on which the experiments have been development. These have not been tested a medium-scale.
I suggest that could be publishing this work in the journal, only after mayor corrections.
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Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Observations to the manuscript: Effect of bamboo vinegar in the control of nitrogen loss in the composting of vegetable residues and manure
Introduction
1.- More information related to bamboo vinegar is needed, regarding its use and physicochemical characterization (lines 60 and 61).
2.- They state that there is a lack of information regarding the potential effects of bamboo vinegar, but they do not mention whether this also occurs with those of the microbial inoculant (lines 63 to 65).
3.- It is missing to mention the microbial inoculant in the objectives (lines 66 and 67).
Materials and methods.
4.- There are no bibliographical references to support the shredding size of the waste (line 74).
5.- Submit a table or diagram to indicate the mixtures used and amounts of each treatment input (lines 87 and 88).
6.- There are no bibliographical references that support the amount and frequency of aeration (line 91).
7.- There are no bibliographical references that support the values of C/N and humidity (lines 92 and 93).
8.- There are no bibliographical references for equations 1 and 2 (lines 113 and 123).
9.- Sections 2.4, 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7 require bibliographic references.
10.- There are missing references for the quantity and day for the germination test (line 117).
Results and discussions
11.- In section 3.2.1, they indicate that the bamboo vinegar treatment accelerated the composting process, but they do not mention what happened with the microbial inoculant (lines 205 to 210).
12.- In section 3.2.2, it is necessary to indicate values reported by other authors.
13.- In section 3.2.3 they mention the pH changes that occurred in the experiment, but do not refer to values reported by other authors.
14.- In section 3.2.3 they mention: “...Temperatures during the composting process remained in the thermophilic phase until day 5 due to adequate oxygen supply from the ventilation fan. Compost pH decreased after day 14 in all treatments, possibly due to ammonium accumulation and NH3 emissions…” However, it is important to mention that this phenomenon could also be attributed to the generation of organic acids and production of carbon dioxide from the decomposition of organic matter.
15.- In the results presented from section 3.2.4 and 3.2.5 it is not necessary to indicate if the differences mentioned were statistically significant or not, especially for the initial and final values of the concentrations
Conclusions
16.-There is a paragraph that literally says: “…Combination use of BV and MI had a more significant effect on GI than BV or MI alone…”. However, it is not clear what variable they refer to.
Comments for author File: Comments.docx
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The study provides a very interesting and nice set of data regarding the use of Bamboo vinegar and/or microbial inoculant in the composting process of vegetable wastes. Among the most interesting results is the fact that BV alone or in combination with MI reduced TN loss, NH3, and N2O emissions during the composting process and inhibited aerobic microorganisms, nitrification, and denitrification bacteria. The authors are encouraged to further study the application of their methodology to various types of compost.
The manuscript is generally well-written, and the results and discussion are comprehensive. However, although there is a special paragraph in the text about the statistical analysis (Lines 176-179), statistical analysis of the data is not given regarding the variation in physiochemical properties among compost treatments. Please check your data analysis.
In addition a few recommendations are given below:
Materials and Methods:
Lines 85-87: A table showing the quantities of materials used for each treatment combination is suggested.
Results and Discussion:
-Please describe the initials for treatments T1-T4 in both tables T2 and T3
-Figure 1 a. The title of the X axis is not well shown.
-Lines 231-233: Please change EC units from ms cm-1 to mS cm-1. Please explain the rise in EC of the compost
-Lines 226-229 and 234-244 should be joined in one paragraph regarding compost pH results
The manuscript could be considered for publication following the above changes.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 4 Report
Dear Authors,
I have read Your manuscript entitled: Effect of bamboo vinegar on nitrogen loss control of vegetable waste and manure composting.
In my opinion, it has to be reviewed before being ready for publication in its current form.
To support You in further modifications, please find some guidelines:
2. All abbreviations should be explained before using them the first time- please verify, e.g., line 402.
3. Please avoid using words from the title as the keywords- it can narrow the search area/possibility.
4. The novelty and research gap should be emphasized in the Introduction section. Please also highlight the work’s contribution to the field; consider answering these questions: What is(are) the main questions the paper is trying to answer? Is the article establishing a new technique? If so, what is novel about the method (s)?
5. Please explain why tomato residues were dried before composting. It reduced the humidity.
6. Please explain why the proportion of DM and TR were considered at chosen levels. Did the Authors verify the impact of different proportions on the composting process? The C/N ratio was established at 21:1, while optimal is found in the range of 20-30:1; thus, it might be interesting to verify, e.g., 20:1, 25:1, 30:1.
7. Please explain if moisture was controlled during 50 days long experiments.
Why were compost samples at 41st day of the process used for germination tests instead of on the 50th day of composting?
Why are only 35 days reported, e.g., in Figures? The whole composting process should be reported.
8. When results are reported as average values, the statistical error should be provided, e.g., Table 2;
9. If the moisture content exceeds 65%, anaerobic conditions develop- please verify and discuss the impact on obtained results.
1. Please also verify obtained temperature - it is found that a temperature above 60 ⁰C for the required period demonstrates effective hygienisation. In this study, the highest obtained temperature reached only about 55 ℃
1. The results discussion should be expanded. Please add more comparisons to other research results, e.g., lines 226-229 and lines 230-233. Please also try to explain what it means, what might be the reason for that, etc.
1. Future perspectives and limitations should be described in the conclusions.
1. Please verify English style and grammar, e.g., countable and uncountable nouns (waste).
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
As far as I am concerned, this manuscript may be published in its present form.
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Reviewer 4 Report
Dear Auhors,
thank You for the reviewed manuscript.
