Predicting the degradation pattern of organic materials in the composting of a fed-batch operation as inferred from the results of a batch operation

The degradation pattern of organic materials was confirmed by continuously measuring the quantity of CO₂ evolved during the composting process in both batch and fed-batch operations. It was possible to predict the degradation pattern for organic material during a fed-batch operation from that observed during a batch operation after corrections made on the basis of two suppositions. First, it was assumed that the degradation of dog food (which degrades easily) occurred prior to the degradation of the bulking agent and seeding material that were contained in the raw compost mixture; second, it was assumed that the dog food thrown into the fed-batch operation, where the microorganisms were already proliferating, began to be actively degraded with only a short lag time. Received: June 16, 1998 / Accepted: August 7, 1999