Composting Plant Design and Process Management

The modem composting plant is a biological processing facility designed to convert raw feedstocks to a usable, high quality end product. The desired end product is a stable, mature, and high quality compost which can be used for soil conditioning and fertilization. Many feedstocks can serve as starting substrates for the compo sting process. However, the characteristics of these feedstocks are most important to both design and operation of the composting plant and to the quality of the final product. The thermodynamic window of operation and the kinetic rates of reaction are determined largely by feedstock characteristics. This paper discusses the effect of feedstock characteristics on plant design and process management, describes the use of simulation models as design and operating tools, and presents several case studies where computer modeling helped resolve process problems.