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Rotary drum composting of different organic waste mixtures

Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (TR), Roorkee, 247667, India, kalamdhad{at}gmail.com

Absar A. Kazmi

Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (TR), Roorkee, 247667, India

The effects of three different mixtures of organic waste on composting in a rotary drum were examined by measuring changes in physico-chemical and biological parameters. It was observed that the time courses of the three mixtures: run A (grass cuttings, vegetable waste and food waste), run B (cattle manure, vegetable waste and sawdust) and run C (cattle manure, food waste, vegetable waste, paper waste and sawdust) were quite diverse. Run B, with initial C/N ratio 22 and containing a large proportion of cattle manure produced high quality and mature compost within 20 days. It showed a final total nitrogen (2.1%), final total phosphorus 3.52 g kg^—1, final total organic carbon (TOC) (24.8%) and final moisture content (44%). At the end of 20 days, higher degradation led to final chemical oxygen demand (COD) (454 mg L^{— 1}), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) (107 mg L^{— 1}), fecal coliform (1.2 x 10² bacteria g^{— 1}), fecal streptococci (85 bacteria g^—1) and low electrical conductivity (1.658 dS m^—1), respectively. Furthermore, run C with initial C/N ratio of 30 and containing a larger amount of food and vegetable waste produced good quality compost and resulted in 4.34% total nitrogen and 2.42% total phosphorus after 20 days, but, it had higher final fecal coliform 2.5 x 10⁴ bacteria g ^—1, fecal streptococci 2.1 x 10⁴ bacteria g^—1, high TOC and NH₄-N and a BOD/COD ratio of 0.63, which rendered it hygienically unsafe and immature. Finally, run A with initial C/N ratio of 15 showed a higher amount of EC (4.84 dS m^—1), NH₄-N, BOD/COD ratio of 0.4 with 15% nitrogen loss, which indicated an unstable product even after 20 days of composting. Therefore, it was found that rotary drum composting of a combination of cattle manure, vegetable waste and sawdust resulted in a primary stabilized compost within 20 days of composting.

Key Words: Decentralized composting • rotary drum • C/N ratio • mixed organic waste • temperature • coliform • BOD/COD ratio • wmr 1290—6

Waste Management & Research, Vol. 27, No. 2, 129-137 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0734242X08091865


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