Composting pilot plant (in experimental farm "Campo 7" of CREA)

Summary

In the Mediterranean area, the agricultural sector must recurrently face the challenge of disposing a huge amount of both no-marketable products and residues from crop cultivation, as well as addressing the issue of soil organic matter (SOM) loss. One of the most reliable management practices to recycle different agricultural wastes, residues and by-products is composting to produce a valuable organic fertilizer, which can maintain or increase SOM, allowing to close the carbon cycle, to protect the environment from pollution determined by synthetic fertilizers overuse and increase economic sustainability, due to avoided waste disposal costs.
In the pilot plant of the experimental farm “Campo 7” of CREA AA (located in Metaponto - South Italy, lat 40° 24’ N; long 16° 48’ E and 8 meters a.s.l.), different composting processes, to recycle various agricultural residues and agro-industrial by-products, have been setup in the frame of many research project in organic agriculture.
The composting plant is laid out on a concrete platform (100 m2), to avoid the loss of percolates. The pile temperature is continuously monitored with two probes connected to a data-logger, while the moisture is regularly (weekly) checked and kept around 60%. The aeration system consists of a blower of 0.55 kW power, an electrical panel equipped with a timer, and a 90 PE pipe for a 3 m length perforated at regular distances, to obtain the correct aeration of the biomass above the pipe. To allow homogenization and best degradation of all the biomasses, the pile can be manually turned with a shovel in a first stage until the temperature decrease to about 25 °C, indicating the end of the process.