Composting has become a preferable option to treat organic wastes to obtain a final stable sanitized product that can be used as an organic amendment. From home composting to big municipal waste treatment plants, composting is one of the few technologies that can be practically implemented at any scale. This review explores some of the essential issues in the field of composting/compost research: on one hand, the main parameters related to composting performance are compiled, with especial emphasis on the maturity and stability of compost; on the other hand, the main rules of applying compost on crops and other applications are explored in detail, including all the effects that compost can have on agricultural land. Especial attention is paid to aspects such as the improvement of the fertility of soils once compost is applied, the suppressor effect of compost and some negative experiences of massive compost application.

No abstract

The degradation of several polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil through composting was investigated. The selected PAHs included: fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracene, fluoranthene, pyrene, benzo(a)anthracene and chrysene, with concentrations simulating a real creosote sample. The degradation of PAHs (initial concentration 1 g of total PAHs kg-1 dry soil) was assessed applying bioaugmentation with the white-rot fungi Trametes versicolor, and biostimulation using compost of the source-selected organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and rabbit food as organic co-substrates. The process performance during 30 days of incubation was evaluated through different analyses including: dynamic respiration index (DRI), cumulative oxygen consumption during 5 days (AT 5), enzymatic activity and fungal biomass. These analyses demonstrated that the introduced T. versicolor did not significantly enhance the degradation of PAHs. However, biostimulation was able to improve the PAHs degradation where 89% of the total PAHs were degraded by the end of the composting period (30 days) compared to only 29.5% that was achieved by the soil indigenous microorganisms without any co-substrate (control, not amended). Indeed, the obtained results showed that stable compost from the OFMSW has a greater potential to enhance the degradation of PAHs compared to non-stable co-substrates such as rabbit food.

Pre-print of Ruggieri, Luz et al. «Performance of different systems for the composting of the source-selected organic fraction of municipal solid waste» in Biosystems Engineering (Elsevier), Vol. AbstractPerformance of three pile composting systems at field-scale were studied and compared in the composting of source-selected organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW): turned pile, static forced-aerated pile and turned forced-aerated pile.Routine parameters such as temperature, oxygen content, moisture and porosity were monitored. Temperature was found to be higher in turned systems whereas oxygen content was higher in forced-aerated systems. Although the initial air filled porosity for all mixtures was high, around 70%, the material tended to compact in the static system.

No abstract