A new strategy for composting has been developed, based on O2 feedback control. Experiments were carried out on composting the biodegradable fraction of municipal solid waste in a closed bioreactor, aerated by pressure ventilation. Ventilation was controlled in order to maintain the O2 level in the internal atmosphere of the composting mass between 15 and 20%. The new strategy seems to give satisfactory results in terms of process control, quality of end-product, low energy consumption, and hygienization of compost. These results were supported by analyses of: (1) the variation of the main microbial groups during composting; (2) the balance of material; (3) the gas present in the internal atmosphere (O2, NH3, CO2, H 2S); (4) phytotoxicity; and (5) pathogenic and indicator micro-organisms. The importance of carrying out these analyses to guarantee the quality of the end-product and to control the process is discussed. Finally, the new system for controlling composting is compared with the existing strategies (Beltsville and Rutgers systems).
Alexander, M. (1977), Introduction to Soil Microbiology. Wiley, New York.
2.
Alexander, M. (1982), Most probable number method for microbial populations . In: Methods of Soil Analysis. Part 2 ( Page, A. L., ed.), pp. 815-820. American Society of Agronomy, Inc., Madison. Wisconsin.
3.
American Public Wastes Association (1966). Municipal Refuse Disposal. 2nd edition. Public Administrative Services, Chicago .
4.
American Public Health Association (1971), Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 13th edition. American Public Health Association , Washington, DC.
5.
Beccari, G. (1922), Apparatus for working garbage and refuse of towns . (U.S. Patent 1,329,105, 27 January 1920; reissue 15,417, 25 July 1922.
6.
Belser. L.W. (1979), Population ecology of nitrifying bacteria. Annual Reviews of Microbiology, 33, 309-333.
7.
Bremner, J.M. (1965), Total nitrogen. Inorganic forms of nitrogen. Organic forms of nitrogen. In: Methods of Soil Analysis, Part 2 (Black, C. A.. ed.), pp. 1149-1255. American Society of Agronomy, Inc., Madison, Wisconsin .
8.
Carnes, R.A. & Lossin, R.D. (1970), An investigation of the pH characteristics of compost. Compost Science, 11, 1821.
9.
Carrington, E.G. (1980), The isolation and identification of Salmonella sp. in sewage sludges: a comparison of methods and recommendations for a standard technique. WRC, Technical Report TR129. Stevenage, U.K.
10.
Citterior, B., Civilini, M., Rutili, A., Pera A. & de Bertoldi, M. (1986), Control of a composting process in bioreactor by monitoring chemical and microbial parameters. In: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Compost. Production, Quality and Use (de Bertoldi, M., L'Hermite, P., Ferranti, M. P. & Zucconi, P., eds). Elsevier Applied Science Publishers, London.
11.
Crawford, R.L. & Crawford, D.L. ( 1984), Recent advances in studies of the mechanisms of microbial degradation of lignins. Enzyme and Microbial Technology, 6, 433-480.
12.
Davies, A.G. (1961), Municipal Composting. Faber & Faber, London.
13.
de Bertoldi, M. & Zucconi, F. (1980), Microbiologia della trasformazione dei rifiuti solidi urbani in compost e loro utilizzazione in agricoltura (Composting of solid urban waste: microbiology and land utilization). Ingegneria Ambientale, 3, 209-216.
14.
de Bertoldi, M., Citernesi, U. & Griselli, M. (1979), Microbiological studies on sludge processing. In: Proceedings of C.E.C. First European Symposium on Treatment and Use of Sewage Sludge (Alexander, D. & Ott, H. eds). C.E.C., Bruxelles.
15.
de Bertoldi, M., Citernesi, U. & Griselli, M. (1980), Bulking agents in sludge composting. Compost Science and Land Utilization, 21, 32-35.
16.
de Bertoldi, M., Citernesi, U. & Griselli, M. (1982a), Microbial population in compost process. In: Composting, by the Staff of BioCycle, p. 26. The JG Press, Inc., Emmaus, Pa.
17.
de Bertoldi, M., Vallini, G., Pera, A. & Zucconi, F. (1982b), Comparison of three windrow compost systems, BioCycle, 23, 45-50.
18.
de Bertoldi, M., Vallini. G. & Pera, A. (1983), The biology of composting: a review. Waste Management & Research, 1, 157-176.
19.
Diaz, L.F., Savage, G.M. & Golueke, C.G. (1982), Resource Recovery from Municipal Solid Wastes , Vol. II. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.
20.
Dudley. D. J., Guentzel, M.N., Ibarra, M.J., Moore, B.E. & Sagik, B.P. (1980), Enumeration of potentially pathogenic bacteria from sewage sludges. Applied and Environmental Microbiology . 39, 118-126.
21.
Eggins, H.O.W. (1965), A medium to demonstrate the ligninolytic activity of some fungi. Experimentia, 21, 54-55.
22.
Finstein, M.S. (1980), Composting microbial ecosystem: implication for design and control. BioCycle, 21, 2527.
23.
Finstein, M.S. & Morris, M.L. (1975). Microbiology of municipal solid waste composting. Adrances in Applied Microbiology, 19, 113-151.
24.
Finstein, M.S., Cirello, J., MacGregor, S.T. & Miller. F.C. (1980a), Discussion of paper by R. T. Hauug. Journal of the Water Pollution Control Federation, 52, 2037-2042.
25.
Finstein, M.S.Cirello, J.MacGregor, S.T., Miller, F.C. & Psarianos. K.M. (1980b). Rational approach to composting process control. Final report to USEPA, NJDEP, CCMUA. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.
Finstein, M.S., Miller, F.C. & Strom, P.F. (1986), Waste treatment composting as a controlled system . In: Biotechnology, Vol. 8 (Rehm, H. J. & Reed, G., eds), pp. 363-398. WCH, Weinheim.
28.
Focht, D.D. & Chang, A.C. (1975), Nitrification and denitrification processes related to waste treatment. Advances in Applied Microbiology, 19, 153-186.
29.
Golueke, C.G. (1972), Composting: a Study of the Process and its Principles . Rodale Press, Inc., Emmaus, Pa.
Golueke, C.G. (1982), Selection and adaptation of a compost system. In: Composting. Eds the Staff of Compost Science and Land Utilization, p. 85. J. P. Press, Inc., Emmaus, Pa.
32.
Haug, R.T. (1979), Engineering principles of sludge composting. Journal of the Water Pollution Control Federation, 51, 2189-2206.
33.
Haug, R.T. (1980), Compost Engineering: Principles and Practice. Ann Arbor Science, Ann Arbor, Michigan .
34.
Howard, A. (1935), The manufacture of humus by the Indore Process . Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 84, 26-59.
35.
Howard, A. (1943), An Agricultural Treatment. Oxford University Press, London.
36.
Howard, A. & Wad, Y.D. (1931), The Waste Products of Agriculture. Oxford University Press, London.
37.
Hudson, H.J. (1972), Fungal saprophytism. In The Institute of Biology's Studies in Biology, No. 32, p. 16. Edward Arnold , London.
38.
King, F.M. (1927), Farmers of Forty Centuries. Johnathan Cape, London.
39.
Kuter, G.A., Hoitink, H.A. & Rossman, L.A. (1985), Effects of aeration and temperature on composting of municipal sludge in a full scale vessel system. Journal of the Water Pollution Control Federation, 57, 309-315.
40.
Lacey, T. (1973), Actinomycetes in soils, composts and fodders. In: Actinomycetales: Characteristics and Practical Importance (Sykes, G. & Skinner, F. A., eds), pp. 231-251. Academic Press, New York.
41.
Loehr, R.C. (1974), Agricultural Waste Management. Academic Press, New York.
42.
MacGregor, S.T., Miller, F.C., Psarianos, K.M. & Finstein, M.S. (1981), Composting process control based on interaction between microbial heat output and temperature. Applied Environmental Microbiology, 41, 1321-1330.
43.
McKinley, V.L. & Vestal, J.R. (1984), Biokinetic analyses of adaptation and succession: microbial activity in composting municipal sewage sludge. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 47, 933-941.
44.
McKinley, V.L. & Vestal, J.R. (1985), Physical and chemical correlates of microbial activity and biomass in composting municipal sewage sludge. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 50, 1395-1402.
45.
Miller, F.C. & Finstein, M.S. (1985), Materials balance in the composting of wastewater sludge as affected by process control strategy. Journal of the Water Pollution Control Federation, 57, 122-127.
46.
Mossel, D.A.A., Bijker, P.G.H. & Beldering, J. (1978), Streptokokken der Lancefield-Gruppe D in Lebensmitteln und Trinkwasser - ihre Bedeutung (Streptococci of D group in food and drinking water—their importance). Archiv für Lebensmittelhygiene , 29, 121-127.
47.
Nakasaki, K., Sasaki, M., Shoda, M. & Kubota, H. (1985a), Change in microbial numbers during thermophilic composting of sewage sludge with reference to CO2 evolution rate . Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 49, 37-41.
48.
Nakasaki, K., Shoda, M. & Kubota, H. (1985b), Effect of temperature on composting of sewage sludge. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 50, 1526-1530.
49.
Pochon, J. & Tardieux, P. (1962), Techniques d'analyse en microbiologie du sol (Analytical techniques in soil microbiology). La Tourelle, Paris.
50.
Reuter, G. (1978), Selektive kultivierung von 'Enterokokken' aus lebensmitteln tierisher herkunft (Selective methods for isolation of Enterococci from food). Archiv für Lebensmittelhygiene, 29, 128-131.
51.
Riffaldi, R., Levi-Minzi, R., Pera, A. & de Bertoldi, M. (1986), Evaluation of compost maturity by means of chemical and microbial analyses. Waste Management & Research, 4, 387-396.
52.
Schmidt, E.L. & Belser, L.W. (1982), Nitrifying bacteria. In: Methods of Soil Analysis, Part 2 (Page, A. L., ed.), pp. 1027-1041. American Society of Agronomy, Madison, Wisconsin.
53.
Snell, J. (1979), Designing sludge fundamentals, experience. Sludge, 2, 28-31.
54.
Strauch, D. (1986), Microbial specifications of disinfected compost . In: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Compost, Production, Quality and Use ( de Bertoldi, M., L'Hermite, P., Ferranti, M. P. & Zucconi, F., eds). Elsevier Applied Science Publishers, London.
55.
Strauch, D. & de Bertoldi, M. (1985), Microbiological specifications of disinfected sewage sludge. In: Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Processing and Use of Organic Sludge and Liquid Agricultural Wastes (L'Hermite, P. , ed.). D. Reidel, Dordrecht .
56.
Strom, P.F. (1985), Effect of temperature on bacterial species diversity in thermophilic solid-waste composting. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 50, 899-905.
57.
Suler, D.J. & Finstein, M.S. (1977), Effect of temperature, aeration, and moisture on CO2 formation in bench-scale, continuously thermophilic composting of solid waste. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 33, 345-350.
58.
Tansey, M.R. & Brock, T.D. (1978), Microbial life at high temperatures: ecological aspects. In: Microbial Life in Extreme Environments (Kushner, D. J., ed.), pp. 159-216. Academic Press, London.
59.
Willson, G.B., Epstein, E. & Parr, J.R. (1976), Recent advances in compost technology. In: Sludge Management, Disposal and Utilization, p. 167. Information Transfer, Inc., Rockville, MD.
60.
Willson, G.B., Parr, J.F., Epstein, E., Marsh, P.B., Chaney, R.L., Colacicco, D., Burge, W.D., Sikora, L.J., Tester, C.F. & Hornick, S. (1980), Manual for composting sewage sludge by the Beltsville aerated-pile method. Report, EPA-600/8-80-022, MERL/ORD. Cincinnati, OH.
61.
Willson, G.B. & Dalmat, D. (1983), Sewage sludge composting in the U.S.A, BioCycle, 24, 20-23.
62.
Zucconi, F. & de Bertoldi, M. (1987), Compost specification for the production and characterization of compost from municipal solid waste . In: Compost: Production, Quality and Use (de Bertoldi, Ferranti, M. P., L'Hermite, P. & Zucconi, F., eds). Elsevier Applied Science Publishers, London.
63.
Zucconi, F., Forte, M., Monaco, A. & de Bertoldi, M. (1981a), Biological evaluation of compost maturity. BioCycle, 22, 27-30.
64.
Zucconi, F., Pera, A., Forte, M. & de Bertoldi, M. (1981b), Evaluating toxicity of immature compost. BioCycle, 22, 54-57.
