Optimization of Food Waste and Biochar In-Vessel Co-Composting

As bulking agents (BA) affect the composting process, this work examined the impact of combinations of different organic components in order to obtain an efficient co-substrate for food waste (FW) in-vessel composting. To boost the occurrence of microorganisms inhabiting the compost, mature compost...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2020-02, Vol.12 (4), p.1356
Main Authors: Chaher, Nour El Houda, Chakchouk, Mehrez, Engler, Nils, Nassour, Abdallah, Nelles, Michael, Hamdi, Moktar
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Bioreactors
Carbon
Charcoal
Composting
Composts
Emission standards
Environmental impact
Fertilizers
Food waste
Heavy metals
Leachates
Lignocellulose
Metal concentrations
Microorganisms
Moisture content
Nitrification
Optimization
Quality standards
Raw materials
Stability analysis
Substrates
Sustainability
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:As bulking agents (BA) affect the composting process, this work examined the impact of combinations of different organic components in order to obtain an efficient co-substrate for food waste (FW) in-vessel composting. To boost the occurrence of microorganisms inhabiting the compost, mature compost was firstly coupled with wheat straw, added to FW, and considered as a control (BC0). Then, two trials (BC10, BC20) including 10% and 20% of biochar were monitored. The results indicated that the temperature of the amended bioreactors was notably increased compared to the unamended one. Thermophilic temperatures were achieved at 14, 34, and 78 h after the experimental setup for BC20, BC10, and BC0, which lasted for 14, 17, and 12 days, respectively. When it came to an assessment of maturity and stability, the quality of the compost was evaluated against several indicators and compared with the compost quality standards of the UK, France, Canada, the USA, Poland, and Germany. BC10 illustrated a high-quality product in relation to the heavy metal concentration, a C:N ratio which reached 14.97, an AT4 which was lower than 6 (4.36 mg O2/g TS), and a nitrification index of 2.61 (
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su12041356