Incorporation of Substrates and Inoculums as Operational Strategies to Promote Lignocellulose Degradation in Composting of Green Waste-A Pilot-Scale Study
Oviedo-Ocaña, Edgar Ricardo (Universidad Industrial de Santander (Colòmbia))
Soto, Jonathan (Universidad Industrial de Santander (Colòmbia))
Sánchez-Torres, Viviana (Universidad Industrial de Santander (Colòmbia))
Sanchez, Antoni (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Enginyeria Química, Biològica i Ambiental)

Date:	2023
Abstract:	Composting is a sustainable alternative for green waste (GW) valorization contributing to the circular bioeconomy. However, the processing time must be reduced and the end-product quality must be improved. This study determined the effect of the incorporation of processed food waste (PFW), unprocessed food (UPFW), sawdust (SW), phosphate rock (PR) and a specific bacterial inoculum on GW-composting process parameters and product quality. Three treatments were evaluated in 120 kg piles: (i) TA: (GW + UPFW + PFW + inoculum), (ii) TB (GW + UPFW + PFW), and (iii) TC (GW). An inoculum of Bacillus sp. and Paenibacillus sp. was incorporated in the cooling phase for TA. On the other hand, the effect of the inoculum at the laboratory scale (20 kg reactors) was compared with that found at the pilot scale (120 kg piles). The incorporation of FW, SW, PR and the inoculum increased the amount of lignocellulose biodegradation (TA: 29. 1%; TB: 22. 7%; TC: 18. 2%), which allowed for a reduction of up to 14 days of processing time. The product obtained for TA had a similar quality to the other two treatments, although a lower phytotoxicity was determined according to the germination index (TA: 95%; TB: 85%; and TC: 83%). The final product of TA showed the best agricultural characteristics with pH 8. 3, TOC of 24. 8%, TN of 1. 32%, and GI of 98. 8%. Finally, the scaling effect with the bacterial inoculum was shown to affect parameters such as the TOC, TN, GI, and, to a lesser extent, temperature and pH. The results obtained in this paper highlight the importance of optimizing the composting of GW, specifically with the use of co-substrates and specific inocula, which can be of interest for composting materials with a high content of lignocellulose such as GW.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Published in:	Processes, Vol. 11, Issue 1 (January 2023) , art. 241, ISSN 2227-9717

DOI: 10.3390/pr11010241

12 p, 1.5 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Engineering > Composting Research Group (GICOM)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles