Affiliations: Department of Biology and Institute for Natural
Resource and Waste Management, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong,
HongKong, China. E-mail: c9402920@hkbu.edu.hk | Department ofEnvironmental Science, Wuhan University,
Wuhan 430072, China | State Key Laboratory for Freshwater Ecology and
Biotechnology,Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan
430072, China
Note: [] Corresponding author
Abstract: Composting is being widely employed in the treatment of petroleum
waste. The purpose of this study was to find the optimum control parameters for
petroleum waste in-vessel composting. Various physical and chemical parameters
were monitored to evaluate their influence on the microbial communities present
in composting. The CO_2 evolution and the number of microorganisms were
measured as theactivity of composting. The results demonstrated that the
optimum temperature, pH and moisture content were 56.5-59.5, 7.0-8.5 and
55%-60%, respectively. Under the optimum conditions, the removal efficiency of
petroleum hydrocarbon reached 83.29% after 30 days composting.
Keywords: optimization, control parameters, petroleum waste, composting
