INRA, UMR1091 Environment and Arable Crops (INRA, AgroParisTech), F-78850 Thiverval-Grignon, France.
Waste Manag. 2012 Feb;32(2):271-7. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2011.09.011. Epub 2011 Oct 6.
Small-scale reactors (<10 l) have been employed in composting research, but few attempts have assessed the performance of composting considering the transformations of organic matter. Moreover, composting at small scales is often performed by imposing a fixed temperature, thus creating artificial conditions, and the reproducibility of composting has rarely been reported. The objectives of this study are to design an innovative small-scale composting device safeguarding self-heating to drive the composting process and to assess the performance and reproducibility of composting in small-scale pilots. The experimental setup included six 4-l reactors used for composting a mixture of sewage sludge and green wastes. The performance of the process was assessed by monitoring the temperature, O(2) consumption and CO(2) emissions, and characterising the biochemical evolution of organic matter. A good reproducibility was found for the six replicates with coefficients of variation for all parameters generally lower than 19%. An intense self-heating ensured the existence of a spontaneous thermophilic phase in all reactors. The average loss of total organic matter (TOM) was 46% of the initial content. Compared to the initial mixture, the hot water soluble fraction decreased by 62%, the hemicellulose-like fraction by 68%, the cellulose-like fraction by 50% and the lignin-like fractions by 12% in the final compost. The TOM losses, compost stabilisation and evolution of the biochemical fractions were similar to observed in large reactors or on-site experiments, excluding the lignin degradation, which was less important than in full-scale systems. The reproducibility of the process and the quality of the final compost make it possible to propose the use of this experimental device for research requiring a mass reduction of the initial composted waste mixtures.
小型反应堆（<10 升）已被用于堆肥研究，但很少有尝试从有机物转化的角度评估堆肥的性能。此外，小型堆肥通常通过施加固定温度来进行，从而创造出人工条件，并且堆肥的重现性很少被报道。本研究的目的是设计一种创新的小型堆肥装置，以自我加热来驱动堆肥过程，并评估小型试验台上堆肥的性能和重现性。实验装置包括六个 4 升的反应器，用于堆肥污水污泥和绿色废物的混合物。通过监测温度、O2 消耗和 CO2 排放以及有机物生化演变来评估过程的性能。六个重复的结果具有很好的重现性，所有参数的变异系数通常低于 19%。强烈的自热确保了所有反应器中都存在自发的高温期。总有机物质（TOM）的平均损失为初始含量的 46%。与初始混合物相比，热水可溶性部分减少了 62%，半纤维素样部分减少了 68%，纤维素样部分减少了 50%，木质素样部分减少了 12%，最终堆肥中的木质素样部分减少了 12%。TOM 损失、堆肥稳定化和生化组分的演变与在大型反应堆或现场实验中观察到的相似，除了木质素降解程度较低，这一现象在全规模系统中并不常见。该过程的重现性和最终堆肥的质量使得该实验装置能够被提议用于需要减少初始堆肥混合物质量的研究。
