Use of additive and pretreatment to control odors in municipal kitchen waste during aerobic composting

The effects of adding a bulking agent and chemically pretreating municipal kitchen waste before aerobic composting were studied using a laboratory-scale system. The system used 20-L reactors and each test lasted 28 days. The objective was to decrease NH₃ and H₂S emissions during composting. The bulking agent, dry cornstalks, was mixed with the kitchen waste to give a mixture containing 15% (wet weight) bulking agent. A combined treatment was also conducted, in which kitchen waste mixed with the bulking agent was pretreated with ferric chloride (FeCl₃). Less leachate was produced by the composted kitchen waste mixed with bulking agent than by the kitchen waste alone, when the materials had reached the required maturity. The presence of cornstalks also caused less H₂S to be emitted, but had little impact on the amount of NH₃ emitted. The FeCl₃ was found to act as an effective chemical flocculant, and its presence significantly decreased the amounts of NH₃ and H₂S emitted. Kitchen waste mixed with cornstalks and treated with FeCl₃ emitted 42% less NH₃ and 76% less H₂S during composting than did pure kitchen waste.