Effect of different multichannel ventilation methods on aerobic composting and vegetable waste gas emissions.

Abstract

Aerobic composting, especially semipermeable membrane-covered aerobic fermentation, is known to be an effective method for recycling and reducing vegetable waste. However, this approach has rarely been applied to the aerobic composting of vegetable waste; in addition, the product characteristics and GHG emissions of the composting process have not been studied in-depth. This study investigated the effect of using different structural ventilation systems on composting efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions in a semipermeable membrane-covered vegetable waste compost. The results for the groups (MV1, MV2, and MV3) with bottom ventilation plus multichannel ventilation and the group (BV) with single bottom ventilation were compared here. The MV2 group effectively increased the average temperature by 19.06% whilst also increasing the degradation rate of organic matter by 30.81%. Additionally, the germination index value reached more than 80%, 3 days in advance. Compared to those of the BV group, the CH4, N2O, and NH3 emissions of MV2 were reduced by 32.67%, 21.52%, and 22.57%, respectively, with the total greenhouse gas emissions decreasing by 24.17%. Overall, this study demonstrated a multichannel ventilation system as a new method for improving the composting efficiency of vegetable waste whilst reducing gas emissions.