Stability evaluation of simulated plant and animal composts utilizing respiration rates and VOC emissions
- Journal
- 2007 ASAE Annual Meeting
- Page
- 1
- Year
- 2007
Composting livestock carcasses is an economically and biologically safe method to convert carcasses into odorless, humus like material useful as a soil amendment. One of the key factors to determine the quality of the end product is stability. In this study, mortality composting is simulated using a laboratory set-up operating under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. 85 m Carboxen/PDMS SPME fiber coating and 10 minutes sampling time are used to sample headspace of decaying plant (corn silage) and animal (shredded whole pig body) tissues. Compounds are separated and identified on a multidimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-olfactometry (MDGC-MS-O) system. Sulfur containing compounds (methyl mercaptan, carbondisulfide, dimethyl disulfide, dimethyl trisulfide, 1,4-dimethyl tetra sulfide) and 1-H-indole and 3-methyl-1H-indole are found as indicators of decaying animal tissue.