Effect On the Air Permeability of Composting Bulking Agent

Abstract

Common bulking agents in composting system include woody materials such as sawdust and woodchips. These bulking agents are mainly used for the purpose of the proper control of C/N ratio and moisture content in the composting. The topic for the effect on air permeability of bulking agents has far received relatively little attention in the composting field. This study investigated the effect of bulk density, moisture content, air-filled porosity, particle size and air flow rate on air permeability of several mixture ratios of sawdust and woodchip bulking agent. Increasing the moisture contents, the air-filled porosity was decreased and the particle size was increased for all kinds of bulking agent mixtures. Especially, with the increasing of mixing ratio of woodchip, these effects were sharply magnified. The air permeability respond to air-filled porosity was very similar to that for moisture content which was anticipated the linear relationship between air-filled porosity and moisture content. Above the region of moisture content 0.25 or 0.43(d.b.)(20 or 30% w.b.), the pressure drop decreased even though air-filled pore spaces were filling with water. Especially, to the particle size of 5 mm the pressure drop was decreased exponentially, so the air permeability was dramatically improved. By the water had the role of binding of the small particles, the macropores less resistances to air flow were created in the matrix. The effect of particle size on air permeability was much stronger than that of air-filled porosity or moisture content. And it is needed the preparing of initial particle size above 5 mm for efficient composting.