IASP Food Waste Composting Study
Uncovered food-waste piles can attract vectors like birds and other scavenging animals.
After the total composting time of about four weeks, peeling the cover back will reveal decomposition.
Nor-Cal utilizes a Scarab windrow turner at their facility.
A flux chamber is used to collect emissions for laboratory testing.
Nitrogen tanks clean out the flux chamber.
Temperatures and gas levels are monitored.
Nitrogen emission samples are collected using a flux chamber and Gil-Air pump.
Covers are draped and sealed over piles which can stretch long distances.
The fans pumps oxygen, which is needed by the decomposition critters, into the pile.
Covers keep the odor in and let carbon dioxide, oxygen, and water vapor out.
Steam is common during composting.
The flux chamber is at work again. Heat is controlled between 145 and 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
The rows of piles offer easy access.
The equipment is easy to relocate.
The cover is being folded back.
Composting organics are revealed.
A worker checks the temperature.
A vacuum canister is used to collect emissions from the flux chamber.
The covers can handle hot heat or wet rain.
Compost process takes 4-6 weeks.
This is a large composting facility.
Fans continue to pump Oxygen into the pile.
Notice the dark coloration of composted soil.
There can be many rows of piles that produce a ton of nutrient-enriched soil.