Odor in Commercial Scale Compost: Literature Review and Critical Analysis
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Odor in Commercial Scale Compost: Literature Review and Critical Analysis October 17, 2013 Publication no. 13-07-066 Amendment 1 to Contract C1200132 Publication and Contact Information This report is available on the Department of Ecology’s website at www.ecy.wa.gov/biblio/1307066.html For more information contact: Waste 2 Resources P.O. Box 47600 Olympia, WA 98504-7600 Phone: 360-407-6900 Washington State Department of Ecology - www.ecy.wa.gov o Headquarters, Olympia 360-407-6000 o Northwest Regional Office, Bellevue 425-649-7000 o Southwest Regional Office, Olympia 360-407-6300 o Central Regional Office, Yakima 509-575-2490 o Eastern Regional Office, Spokane 509-329-3400 If you need this document in a format for the visually impaired, call the Waste 2 Resources at 360-407-6900. Persons with hearing loss can call 711 for Washington Relay Service. Persons with a speech disability can call 877-833-6341. Odor in Commercial Scale Compost Literature Review and Critical Analysis By Jingwei Ma Kelpie Wilson Quanbao Zhao Georgine Yorgey Craig Frear Waste 2 Resources Washington State Department of Ecology Olympia, Washington Table of Contents Page Table of Contents................................................................................................................. i List of Figures and Tables.................................................................................................. iii Figures................................................................................................................................ iii Tables................................................................................................................................. iv Executive Summary.............................................................................................................v Introduction..........................................................................................................................1 Background....................................................................................................................1 Compost operation.........................................................................................................2 Odor ...............................................................................................................................3 Report overview.............................................................................................................5 Non-Pile, Infrastructural Approaches to Odor Management...............................................6 Background....................................................................................................................6 Receiving/Tipping/Storage building..............................................................................7 Biofilter and gaseous treatment technology...................................................................8 Outside handling and pre-processing steps....................................................................9 Liquid storage tanks and ponds from leachate and storm water..................................10 Product curing and storage...........................................................................................11 Site footprint and setbacks...........................................................................................11 Non-Anaerobic, Biological Approaches to Pile Management...........................................12 Background..................................................................................................................12 Low pH and anaerobic conditions ...............................................................................12 Impacts of the negative pH cycle.................................................................................13 Best management practices to manage the low pH negative cycle .............................14 Summary of best management practices for low pH...................................................15 Effective microorganism seeding ................................................................................16 Vermicomposting.........................................................................................................17 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................17 Anaerobic Approaches to Treatment of the Highly Biodegradable Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste..................................................................................................................................18 Background..................................................................................................................18 Existing and on-going projects within the United States and Canada .........................22 Benefits of combining anaerobic digestion and composting .......................................23 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................25 Use of Amendment Approaches to Pile Chemistry and Biology ......................................26 Background..................................................................................................................26 i Volatile fatty acids .......................................................................................................27 Ammonia and nitrogen-based odors ............................................................................28 Hydrogen sulfide and sulfur-based odors ....................................................................29 Aeration and moisture..................................................................................................30 Methane........................................................................................................................31 Nitrous oxide................................................................................................................31 Carbon dioxide.............................................................................................................31 Biochar and compost quality .......................................................................................32 Compost nitrogen content....................................................................................33 Compost maturity and humic content..................................................................34 Biochar property alteration through composting.................................................34 Plant growth response to biochar compost..........................................................34 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................35 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................36 Appendix A. Historical and Traditional Uses of Biochar Related to Odor Control ..........39 Ancient and traditional biochar....................................................................................39 19th century agricultural charcoal ...............................................................................41 The sewer debates........................................................................................................43 Profiles of current initiatives for using biochar in compost.........................................48 Japanese composting with biochar ......................................................................48 Integrated solutions in Vietnam...........................................................................49 Waste utilization in rural India ............................................................................49 The Delinat Institute, Switzerland.......................................................................49 Sonnenerde Company, Germany.........................................................................50 Terra Preta Sanitation Initiative...........................................................................50 European Biochar Research Network .................................................................50 International conference on biochars, composts, and digestates .........................51 References..........................................................................................................................52 ii List of Figures and Tables Page Figures Figure 1.1 Composting steps (Insam and de Bertoldi, 2007) 2 Figure 2.1 Compost schematic 6 Figure 4.1 Anaerobic digestion process (Britton, 1994) 18 Figure 4.2 Capital cost by design capacity and operating costs by flow throughput for 19 commercial digesters for the organic fraction of MSW as reported in Hartmann and Ahring, 2006a Figure 4.3 Summary of various MSW organic AD technology approaches 20 Figure 4.4: Trends in slurry (wet) and non-slurry (dry) AD of the organic fraction of 21 MSW (Hartmann and Ahring, 2006a) Figure 4.5: Exiting anaerobic digesters at: a) EBMUD Wastewater Treatment Plant in 22 Oakland, California, b) Chino, California Figure 5.1: Sustainable management of natural resources by combining biochar with 33 organic and inorganic wastes in compost processing (Fischer and Glaser, 2012) Figure 1A: Advertisement for poudrette made from human night soil and other 46 ingredients manufactured by the Lodi Manufacturing Company in the United States in the 19th Century. (International Plant Nutrition Institute, 2003) Figure 2A: Cartoon depicting