PILOT AND FULL-SCALE EXPERIENCES ON SLUDGES AND SOLID WASTES COMPOSTING

We are giving below the results of the experimental investigations performed in the last 15 years by the Ecology Division of Snamprogetti (engineering, research and contracting company of the E.N.I. Group), either on their own or with the partial contribution of the National Council for Scientific Research, for study of the composting of various sludges and/or solid wastes both on a pilot and industrial scale and for agronomic verification of the products both in laboratory and on field.

In particular, we are presenting briefly the main results obtained in:

1. composting of sewage sludges from municipal wastewater as well as paper and textile industry mixed with ligno-cellulosic residues or inert recyclable bulk materials or the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes (either alone);

2. evaluation of the phytotoxicity and growth of test plants on pot or on field added with compost and of the effects induced by the compost on the soil characteristics.

The composting tests were performed both through windrows and through forced aeration static piles, either in vertical (BAV) or horizontal bioreactors (DANO), while for the agronomic tests were utilized the Lepidium sativum and seed, flower and transplantation plants.

The experiences gained Snamprogetti to define and adopt composting technologies suitable for obtaining, in a short time and at controlled conditions, valid composts both from sludges and from municipal and assimilable solid wastes, giving, in this way, a useful contribution to the solution of environmental problems (water/air pollution, soil impoverishment, etc…).

International Symposium on Compost Recycling of Wastes

F. Angiolo

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1992.302.13