Biochar as an additive in the composting process

Abstract

The production of solid wastes from anthropic activities is following a growing increase and the wastes from agriculture and forestry do not escape this trend.In this context, composting emerges as a viable and inexpensive alternative to transform organic waste into compounds that have high potential for use as organic fertilizers.An alternative to optimize the composting process, ensuring compost as agronomic potential and in less time, is the use of Biochar in windrow composting.Based on this assumption, the present work analyses the behavior of pine sawdust and cattle manure compost piles submitted to different Biochar doses (0\%; 1\%;5\% and 10\%).The observed result was that Biochar was responsible for increasing the temperature of the windrow, thus indicating greater microbial activity, presented a higher tendency of moisture loss and gave rise to a more alkaline substrate.