Encapsulation and characterization of slow-release rabbit urine fertilizer from alginate bead coated with chitosan

• Main Authors: Nulhakim, Lukman, Suyatmo, Reviana Inda Dwi, Terani, Ines Meisy, Nurwindah, Siti, Guntama, Dody
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Beads; Calcium chloride; Chitosan; Diameters; Encapsulation; Extrusion rate; Fertilizers; Nitrogen; Rain water; Sodium alginate; Urine
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0114969

Rabbit urine was a liquid fertilizer that could be used for agriculture because of its high nitrogen content. The weakness of this rabbit urine if it rains, rabbit urine will be carried away by the flow of rainwater. Rabbit urine encapsulation is a solution to the above problems. This research aims to study the process of making rabbit urine encapsulation in alginate bead coated with chitosan as a slow-release. An alginate bead was carried out by extruding a mixture of rabbit urine and sodium alginate into a 500 mL CaCl2 solution 50 mM with a pump with various syringe tip sizes as output, 18G, 16G, and 12G. The resulting beads were immersed into 100 mL chitosan solution 2%. The resulting beads were analyzed by measuring the alginate bead radius using a digital microscope and analyzing the nitrogen concentration in the nitrogen release process with UV-Vis Spectro. The average alginate bead diameter for 18G, 16G, and 12G tip sizes were 3.14 mm, 2.18 mm, and 1.89 mm and after being coated with chitosan were 3.49 mm, 2.48 mm, and 2.05 mm. Diffusivity coefficient nitrogen in chitosan was 1.167 x 10 −5 cm2/s.