Emission of gases during composting of solid waste

Abstract

Composting is a biochemical process converting organic components into stable compost with release of heat, water, CO2 and NH3. The objective of this work was to determine the amount of CO2 and NH3 in the exhaust gases during composting of tobacco waste (TW) and mixture of tobacco and grape waste (TGW). The cumulative evolved CO2 during 21 days of composting of TW and TGW, per mass of volatile matter, was 94.01 gkg-1 and 208.18 gkg-1, respectively, and cumulative evolved NH3 during composting of TW and TGW, per mass of vola-tile matter, was 504.81 mgkg-1 and 122.45 mgkg-1, respectively.