Affiliations: Department of Environmental Systems Engineering,
College of Technology, Toyama Prefectural University, 5180 Kurokawa, Kosugi,
Imizu, Toyama 939-0398, Japan | Department of Environmental Engineering, Graduate
School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871,
Japan
Abstract: The new turning method was proposed and verified its effectiveness
to pathogens by laboratory scale experiments. Considering the results obtained
from the previous studies, it could be said that turning of a composting pile
was essential in terms of hygienic aspects but the number of turning should be
minimized. Effectiveness of inactivation was estimated for each composting run.
From this estimation, turning by layers, which is different from conventional
turning that mixes compost pile entirely, was proposed and investigated its
performance by experiments. Composting operations with static pile method,
complete mix (conventional) turning method, and proposed turning (layer turning)
method were done and their effectiveness on inactivation of indicator
microorganism was evaluated and compared. As results, the conventional turning
method was not a proper method in terms of pathogen inactivation, whereas, the
proposed turning method showed an excellent performance and should be employed
in a composting operation.
