What happens to compostable plastics at an industrial composting plant? You want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth … including the pictures and videos? The article of the year brought to you by BioplasticsNews.com<\/p>\n
On the 16th of June 2020, I visited a composting facility in Flanders (Belgium) called Ecowerf to find out what happens to compostable plastics in reality.<\/p>\n
I had the pleasure to Meet Dirk Verbruggen who\u2019s the person in charge of the composting operations at the Ecowerf site. Dirk is an International expert when it comes to testing compostable materials. Dirk is a great source of knowledge and know-how.<\/p>\n
Dirk Verbruggen
\nDirk Verbruggen, Composting Operations, Ecowerf<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a summary of our very interesting conversation.
\nComposting vs Fermentation<\/p>\n
There are two types of industrial facilities that process organic waste: composting and fermentation facilities. Composting produces compost; fermentation produces biogas and digestate.<\/p>\n
Compost will be sold to farmers, companies or individuals. Biogas will be converted into electricity or biofuels, and digestate will be sold to farmers as fertiliser or send to composting facilities.<\/p>\n
Both composting and fermentation processes are done by bacteria and micro-organisms: the bacteria eat and digest the waste.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no need to add bacteria at a composting facility; the bacteria are present in the organic waste. A new fermentation facility needs to receive \u201cnew\u201d digestate from another fermenting plant to start operations.<\/p>\n
The composting of organic waste is an aerobic process; oxygen is needed and is added during the composting process. Fermentation is an anaerobic process, it doesn\u2019t need oxygen and no oxygen is added during the process.<\/p>\n
During the composting of GFT (domestic organic waste), biogas is emitted but not collected by the composters. Composters may use pre-fermentation installations to collect that biogas.<\/p>\n
Biogas can be burned directly by an engine to generate electricity or needs additional processing to be converted into biofuels. Making biofuels is more expensive than generating electricity.
\nIndustrial Composting at Ecowerf<\/p>\n
Ecowerf is an industrial composting facility located in Leuven, Flanders (Belgium). The plant processes 47.000 tonnes organic waste and produces 16.000 tons compost per year. The conversion rate of composting is one third. One third of the biomass will be converted into compost; one third is water and one third is residue that will be re-composted or used as biomass.<\/p>\n
The composting operations at Ecowerf involves around 10 employees.<\/p>\n
Composting facilities are audited every year by several control-organisms to ensure best practices are applied. Several conditions have to be respected to produce healthy and high-quality compost.<\/p>\n
The composting method of Ecowerf consists of 4 phases: pre-treatment, composting, post-treatment and maturation. It\u2019s an aerobic and in-door (closed) process.<\/p>\n
A good composting process needs air \/ oxygen (forced aeration), water, temperature, and a good Ph-level.<\/p>\n
Bacteria need high temperatures, humidity, oxygen and time. An average composting process takes around 10 to 12 weeks (4 phases).<\/p>\n
Sick plants are also delivered to the composting facilities. Therefore, we need high temperatures to avoid compost contamination with bad pathogens. The organic waste needs to rest at least 4 days at 60 \u00b0C or 10 days at 55\u00b0C for hygienisation (to destroy diseases and weedseeds).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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