Kaizen is a
Japanese word meaning Constant Improvement. For us Kaizen is
a way of life. We are constantly looking for ways to improve the composting process
and to make better finished products. Pictured to the right are ten of our compost
research silos, each connected to a forced aeration system to maintain oxygen levels
greater than 15%, and to enable cooling when temperatures rise above our target range.
The compost research silos provide a somewhat controlled environment, reducing the variables. Composting is a biological process and therefore has many variables.
Using computerized temperature monitoring we are
able to record temperatures every hour from 32 thermocouples which are left in the
compost, so we are measuring the temperature at the exact same locations. We had to
increase the size of the blower to be able to consistently hold temperatures below 160°F.
These high temperatures are strongly suggesting that we have very high levels of
bacterial activity. We are expanding our moisture monitoring. Spreadsheets designed to simplify determining moisture
in soil or compost are downloadable from from this website.
In the
Spring of 2004 we added a Micro-Biology lab, including
a 1000X microscope so that we can do microbial assays and gain a better understanding of
the composting process. Bacteria have a very short life span and they are sensitive
to their environment. It is well established that turning often results in a
bacterial "bloom" or rapid increase in the number of active bacteria. To
get a better understanding of what is going on within the compost pile, we need to be able
to do microbial assays within minutes of pulling samples from the pile of compost,
understanding that different stages of compost will likely have massively different arrays
of microbes.
Part of responsible business
management includes checking up on the "workers" to see how many are present and
active. In composting, the primary workers are bacteria and fungi, which
are microscopic in size. That makes checking up on them a little more
involved. We've developed elaborate QuattroPro spreadsheets for crunching the
numbers for doing bacterial and fungal direct estimates.
Being able to do the assays (direct estimates) on site, having the results within hours, enables better understanding of how altering manageable parts of the process affects our microbial master composters, and improve the composting process.
Many composters have paid little, if any attention to the microbes. While material handling is important, every bit as important is catering to the microbes so that they will work most efficiently. These microbes occur naturally in nature. We simply want to support them in getting the job of converting waste into "black gold" / MagicbioSoil as cost efficiently as possible.
We offer a few spreadsheet formats to the public. For more information on them Click Here. One is for determining moisture in compost; and is available in both QuattroPro and Excel formats. Right now those files may not be down loadable. If they aren't, simply e-mail us letting us know which file you would like and we will attach it to a reply to your request.
We have done extensive research on composting food, including working with 65 cubic yard piles with continuous forced aeration. With that pile, for a while we had it on negative pressure aeration, and the air coming out of the blower, having just traveled through about 8' of compost, had no detectable odor, according to a NYS DEC official who sniffed that air by the blower discharge.
Our research has also included very effectively using older compost as a bio-filter. The microbes in bio-filters 'eat' any odors that may be in the air, reducing them to odorless byproducts. Bio-Filters are a well established method of odor management. Keeping the compost aerobic is the primary method of preventing foul odor byproducts. You and I would start to stink also, if we were deprived of oxygen.
This page was last updated:
March 15, 2011