CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The composting process is recognized as one of the components of waste management, which more or less is worldwide applied as an alternative for the treatment of biodegradable waste fraction. Moreover, its use for degrading various co-substrates from industry and wastewater treatment plant is constantly increasing. The methodologies used range from systems with modern technology and high operating costs, to others with high manual participation (e.g. in small towns or in developing countries such as Argentina). Compost facilities could be considered as a chemical reactor design. In this sense, mathematical models of the composting process have been based on the solution of heat and mass balances in time, and in a limited number of cases, spatially. Despite the fact that numerous models for the composting process have been published and reviewed, a standard generally accepted model has still not been proposed. This could partly be explained by the fact that composting is characterized by a high degree of intricacy related to the interactions of several biochemical and physical factors in a heterogeneous matrix of gas, liquid and solid phases, which fluctuate considerably over time. Moreover, most of them refer to static piles with forced or natural ventilation aeration and controlled conditions, and there are a very few integrated models published which consider turning windrows and include experimental validation.