High rate composting studies of hard to degrade herbal wastes were conducted in a 3.5 m3 capacity rotary drum composter. Studies were spread out in four trials: In trial 1 and 2, one and two turns per day rotation was observed, respectively, by mixing of herbal industry waste with cattle (buffalo) manure at a ratio of 3:1 on wet weight basis. In trial 3 inocula was added in raw waste to enhance the degradation and in trial 4 composting of a mixture of vegetable market waste and herbal waste was conducted at one turn per day. Results demonstrated that the operation of the rotary drum at one turn a day (trial 1) could provide the most conducive composting conditions and co-composting (trial 4) gave better quality compost in terms of temperature, moisture, nitrogen, and Solvita maturity index. In addition a FT-IR study also revealed that trial 1 and trial 4 gave quality compost in terms of stability and maturity due to the presence of more intense peaks in the aromatic region and less intense peaks were found in the aliphatic region compared with trial 2 and trial 3.
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Research Article|
May 01 2012
High rate composting of herbal pharmaceutical industry solid waste
M. Ali;
1Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR), Roorkee–247667, India
E-mail: muntzir.ali@gmail.com
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K. S. Duba;
K. S. Duba
3Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR), Roorkee-247667, India
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A. S. Kalamdhad;
A. S. Kalamdhad
2Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG), Guwahati – 781039, India
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A. Bhatia;
A. Bhatia
3Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR), Roorkee-247667, India
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A. Khursheed;
A. Khursheed
3Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR), Roorkee-247667, India
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A. A. Kazmi;
A. A. Kazmi
3Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR), Roorkee-247667, India
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N. Ahmed
N. Ahmed
1Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR), Roorkee–247667, India
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Water Sci Technol (2012) 65 (10): 1817–1825.
Article history
Received:
November 02 2011
Accepted:
January 11 2012
Citation
M. Ali, K. S. Duba, A. S. Kalamdhad, A. Bhatia, A. Khursheed, A. A. Kazmi, N. Ahmed; High rate composting of herbal pharmaceutical industry solid waste. Water Sci Technol 1 May 2012; 65 (10): 1817–1825. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2012.082
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