ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Relationships Among Raw Materials,
Grinding Ratios, and Moisture Content During
the Composting Process
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1
School of Life Science, Anhui University, Hefei, China
2
College of Animal Technology, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, China
3
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
4
College of Resource and Environmental Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
5
Institute of Physical Science and Information Technology, Institute of Health Science, Anhui University, Hefei, China
Submission date: 2017-11-23
Final revision date: 2017-12-13
Acceptance date: 2017-12-18
Online publication date: 2018-07-31
Publication date: 2018-11-20
Corresponding author
Xingyuan Yang
Institute of Health Science, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2019;28(1):343-348
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ABSTRACT
Grinding materials as a pretreatment contribute to successful composting. Here the grinding ratio
of 4 raw materials and compost samples with different maturity degrees were compared and discussed.
Results revealed that the highest grinding ratio was obtained when drying the 3 straws into constant
weight, but keeping water content around 10% for sewage sludge. The carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C/N) was
an important factor impacting the grinding ratio of raw materials except water content. Different straw
materials had a decreased grinding ratio from the highest to the lowest in the following order: corn stover
> rice straw > wheat straw. The grinding ratio of fermented compost significantly decreased lower than
about 50% when the water content was higher than 30%, whereas no significant difference was observed
when the water content was lower than 20%. Compared with original materials, mature compost had
a better grinding ratio. Further regression analysis implies that grinding ratio had a negative linear
orrelation with total organic carbon (TOC), C/N, hemicellulose, and cellulose, but no apparent correlation
with pH, EC, GI, and lignin. Results reported here may provide an efficient way to save energy and
investment in the industry production of pellet compost.