Mechanical Test Methods for Compost Maturity

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Manure-based composts can have detrimental effects on the agricultural lands and crops if they are applied without proper stabilization process. Composting is well-known method for the stabilization of manure-based composts and the extent of composting could be examined by maturity test. Among various methods to examine compost maturity, the performances of two mechanical methods (Solvita and CoMMe-100) were examined and the test results were compared with seed germination test. The mechanical methods are considered to be simple and relatively objective. Also they are cost- and time-efficient. Ten commercially available composts collected in Korea were used for this study. Basically, the maturity determined with these mechanical methods was in good agreement with the seed germination test. However, it appeared that the index levels of compost maturity indicated more maturity by CoMMe-100 than Solvita for the same compost.
The differences between maturity index levels determined by both methods were able to be minimized through extending the reaction time for CoMMe-100 and adjusting index level for maturity determination in the standard color chart.

참고문헌 (Reference)

1 Zucconi, F, "Compost specification for the production and characterization of compost from municipal solid waste" Barking 30-50, 1987

2 California Compost Quality Council (CCQC), "Compost Maturity Index"

3 Changa, C.M, "Assessment of the reliability of a commercial maturity test kit for composted manures" 11 (11): 125-143, 2003