METHOD AND PLANT FOR COMPOSTING

Abstract: Composting fibre material, such as straw, in the most advantageous manner can take place by a method and a plant which is self-controlling due to the bacteriological activity. This is conditional upon the straw having a moisture degree of approx. 80 percent corresponding to about 4-5.5 times the weight of the straw whereby a temperature maximum is obtained. This may take place in such a way that the saturation is effected by the straw (1) being discharged above a zone of manure drops (6) and is thus rained down into a reservoir (2) from which it is carried along for airing. Since no complicated and expensive equipment is required for controlling the process, this can be made self-controlling. This is because there is a close connection between temperature and liquid content in the wetted substance (24) and a quick and hygienic composting may thus take place.

Description: METHOD AND PLANT FOR COMPOSTING The application relates to a method of composting fibrous organic material, such as straw being finely divided and wetted with an aqueous solution or a suspension containing growth-stimulating nutrients such as liquid animal manure, and being deposited, where atmospheric air is passed through, and a plant for carrying out the method. Earlier, farming was mixed comprising plant culti¬ vation as well as cattle breeding, and for thousands of years straw and manure were transformed by so- called composting, i.e. straw and manure were accu¬ mulated in closed or open dungheaps. The admission of more or less air would compost this accumulated amount of waste material in the course of a few months to a small or larg degree, and the finished compost could then be removed and used as fertilizer on the farm land. The increasing specilization within modern farming involves division into different types of farming, such as merely plant cultivation, farms with large herds of pigs and farms with large herds of cattle. In pure plant growing farming there will be an excess of plant material, such as straw, which will often be seen as a waste product, and consequently, such straw is often burned in the field because this is the cheapest way of getting rid of the straw. The burning of straw partly causes environmental problems, and secondly the straw will not form an integrate part of the cycle in Nature by natural decomposition. It may therefore be feared that the lack of biological de¬ composition in the ground in the long run will be harmful to the structure of the soil. In areas with large animal production there is often merely a large production of manure. This production of manure is so large that it is undesirable to spread it over the ground, because this may cause nitrate pollution of the subsoil water. It will therefore be desirable to sell or dispose of excess manure to areas with small or no cattle herds. This would mean that the animal manure could be better utilized because there would be types of plant culti¬ vation that would benefit from the animal manure. However, this is only rarely the case since it is not an economical proposition. Due to increasing concern in the highly developed countries at environmental consequences of the increasing quantities of organic waste, an increasing number of countries have taken an interest in using composting as a method of treating organic waste, and it would be obvious to apply the same method as ear¬ lier farmers have used for thousands of years, i.e. to compost the straw and manure. Composting, however, involves the risk of spreading infectious bacteria and parasites present in the manure. These are characteristic in that they thrive at fair¬ ly low temperatures up to about 40°C. Other bacteria present in the waste products, although in a position of rest, thrive at considerably higher temperatures and are therefore known as thermophilous bacteria. 5 It is seen from the technical literature that an in¬ creased temperature of the compost will reduce or completely destroy a number of pathogenic bacteria, and that parasites, their eggs as well as weed seeds become inactive or are killed when staying in a suf- 10 ficiently high temperature and at a suitable hydrogen ion exponent (pH). It is the object of the invention to secure optimum growth conditions for the thermophilous bacteria, and 15 this is achieved by a method where the fibre material is wetted with a liquid quantity corresponding to ap¬ proximately 4-5.5 times the weight of the fibre mate¬ rial. 20 This ensures that without supplying heat from exter¬ nal heat sources a temperature is produced in the mixture which is high enough for infectious matter and parasites to be destroyed to a very high degree without damaging or killing such bacteria as serve to 25 enhance the decomposition; this process can hereby also become self-controlling. By, as presented in claim 2, passing the fibre mate¬ rial through a liquid drop zone the optimum adsorp- 30 tion of liquid for the fibre material is obtained. By, as presented in claim 3, having the fibre mate¬ rial drop down into the liquid drop zone and there¬ from rain down into a reservoir, a simple and effi- cient wetting of the fibre material is obtained. Finally it is expedient to use the plant presented in claim 4 in that this can be made self-controlling in a very simple manner. In the following the invention will be described in closer detail with reference to the drawing which shows a section through an embodiment of a wetting and composting plant according to the application. Research results show that there is a clear connec¬ tion between the decomposition temperature of compost and its liquid content. Thus, animal manure mixed with straw has a clear temperature maximum of approx¬ imately 70-72°C at a narrow field of only about 5 percentage points, when the moisture degree of the material is between 75 and 80 percent liquid content. Consequently, a liquid content corresponding thereto should be aimed at in order to obtain the largest possible effect on infectious bacteria and parasites. Tests with straw from barley and other ordinary grains have, however, surprisingly shown that straw can adsorb up to 4-5.5 times its own weight of water- based liquid, for instance liquid animal manure or other liquid such as water. Tests have moreover established the fact that the water capacity of farmyard manure depends on the straw content and the homogeneity. Good homogenous straw mixed farmyard manure can thus hold up to 80 percent of water without losing its structure. The moisture content by adsorption of four times the weight of the straw corresponds to 80 percent, and 5.5 times the weight of the straw corresponds to 85 percent water. The shown connection between on the one side the fact that the maximum temperature is reached at a water content of about 75-80 percent, and on the other side the discovery that straw can absorb and hold about 4- 5.5 times its own weight of thin liquid manure, is according to the invention utilized for automatically ensuring maximum temperature and minimum flow time for a continuous composting process of solid or li¬ quid manure and straw. One decisive factor is that the straw, prior to ini¬ tiating the composting process, has had the oppor¬ tunity to absorb the maximum quantity of manure, per¬ haps with water added. It is a known fact, however, that wetting of already dry plant material can be extremely difficult to per¬ form. It should be remembered that dried plant mate¬ rial has been used as an effective roofing material. Examples are leaves and branches of palm trees, chips of wood, grass straw and the like. The point is that one uses the physical property that the adsorption of water to a surface often happens much faster than does absorption, not to speak of so¬ lution. The reason for this is to be found in the stability of the dry dead plant cells, membranes etc. By applying various physical cutting methods, dried plant material such as straw can be finely divided whereby the material is given a large surface which is one of the most important prerequisites for a high adsorption of molecules of aqueous solutions or suspensions which in turn is ascribed to the polar nature of the water molecule. By spraying the water-based liquid, such as liquid animal manure or a slurry thereof, over the suitably finely divided straw material during its free fall whereby it rains down onto a liquid face, it can be collected from the liquid surface by using suitable technical means, such as a conveyor, and be conveyed to the composting plant. By suitable construction of nozzles, quantities of falling straw material and suitable recirculation of the manure, the wetting is adjusted to extend across suitably formed wetting zones whereby a required homogeneous spreading of the falling material is also achieved in order that it is homogenous and suited for composting. A further condition is that the wetted straw is posi¬ tioned so as to be suitably aired. If this require¬ ment has been * met the composting will take place at maximum speed and temperature. A plant for carrying out the method must therefore merely be able to meet these two requirements in or¬ der automatically to achieve that pathogenous bacte¬ ria and parasites certainly are decimated or killed so that the finished compost product leaving the pro- cess will contain only such organic matter as is harmless and as will benefit agriculture. The necessary adjustment or control of a fully auto- matic plant for serving the purpose can in principle thus be reduced to controlling that the material un¬ dergoes the two decisive processes, i.e. wetting and airing. Automatic control of the temperature is thus rendered unnecessary in that this is now only determined by the biological activity. Vice versa, it will be possible to use a measurement of the biologically conditioned temperature as a restoration signal in the automatic control in order thereby to control the purely mechanical continuity of the process. In a technical plant constructed along these two criteria it is thus possible to limit the measuring and controlling highly, because the operation tempe¬ rature will be within a pre-determined narrow area. As a consequence of this method such a plant will in principle be controllable by a simple clockwork which merely ensures conveyancing of the material. This provides a simplification and improves the reli- ability of the operation which considerably reduces the cost of technical plants for composting waste. The example shown in the drawing of an embodiment of a plant will now be explanined in closer detail. The finely divided straw 1 is stored in for instance a silo from which it can be delivered through open¬ ings 4 and fall through a sprinkler chamber in which liquid manure 6 is injected through nozzles 5. The straw is hereby wetted completely and is by the manure drops 6 rained down into the reservoir 2 where excess manure 6 is collected under a grit 8 or the like and from there recirculated in a generally known manner. A conveyor belt 11 being adjustable with respect to transport capacity, carries the mixture 7 to the ac¬ tual composting plant which comprises a container with heat-insulated side walls 13. The mixture 7 is added to the plant from above and distributed by means of grit bars 17, 18 being moved to and fro. Furthermore, there is a grit 12 situated in the middle of the chamber; an insulating layer is thereby provided above the underlying compost chamber 23. This layer consists of the added material 19 at the top and the more compressed underlying layer 21. The material 21 will gradually sink through the grit 12 and fall down into the compost chamber 23 on top of an underlying grit 15. Atmospheric air is sucked through the grit 15 and through the material 24 out through a suction pipe 20, 22. Once the composting is finished, the material 25 will fall down onto an underlying conveyor belt 26 which can carry away the finished compost material. Since, as mentioned above, it is necessary that the material has maximum moisture degree and stays in the compost chamber for a suitable period, contol means are connected for determining the speed of travel of the conveyor belt 11 and perhaps of the moving grits or bars 17, 18 so that a continous composting can be maintained merely by adjusting these conveyancing de¬ vices in terms of time. This simplifies the control, and the maximum composting speed in the shortest pe¬ riod of time is obtained.

Claims: P A T E N T C L A I M S 1. Method of composting fibrous organic material, such as straw, being finely divided and wetted with an aqueous solution or a suspension containing growth-stimulating nutrients such as liquid animal manure, and being deposited, where atmospheric air is passed through, and a plant for carrying out the method, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the fibre material is wetted with a liquid quantity correspond¬ ing to approximately 4-5.5 times the weight of the fibre material. 2. Method according to claim 1, c h a r a c t e - r i z e d in that the fibre material (1) is wetted by being passed through a zone of liquid drops (6) in which the fibre material (1) is sprayed. 3. Method according to claim 2, c h a r a c t e - r i z e d in that the fibre material (1) is dis¬ charged above the liquid drops (6) and by the free fall of the drops is rained down into a reservoir (2) wherefrom the wetted fibre material (7) is conveyed in order to be deposited (21, 24) and aired (20). 4. Plant for carrying out the method according to claims 1-3, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that it comprises a supply of finely divided fibre material (1), a sprinkler chamber placed underneath with nozzles (5) for liquid (6) and an underlying reser¬ voir (2) for the wetted fibre material (7) and a transport device (11) for conveying the fibre materi¬ al (7) to the compost chamber or chambers (19, 23).

Inventors: ANDERSEN NIELS, RASMUSSEN HANS MOELLER, ANDERSEN, NIELS, RASMUSSEN, HANS, MOELLER
Applicants: MOELLER RASMUSSEN HANS, RASMUSSEN, HANS, MOELLER
Application year: 1988
Main classification: C05F9
IPC codes: C05F3, C05F17