• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.19-29
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• 1994

A large volume of paper mill sludge(PMS) is produced every day from paper industries after treatments of waste water and it costs too much to dispose of the sludge. Since PMS consists mostly of biodegradable organic matter, cellulose, it is desirable to recycle it by proper treatments such as composting. In this study, experiments were conducted using a small scale reactor(12l) to establish optimum conditions for efficient composting of PMS of which initial pH, C/N ratio, and moisture content were 7.1, 28~30, and 60~65%, respectively. No heavy metals such as mercury, cadmimum, and lead were not detected in the PMS. Various levels of forced aeration, 1 minute aeration per every 30, 60, 120, 240, and 480 minutes were applied and 1 minute aeration per 60 and 120 minutes found to be proper for composting of 8l PMS in this system. Relationship between $CO_2$ production and temperatures was positively correlated with r> 0.82 suggesting that the normal decomposition of PMS by microorganisms occurred. However, under the condition of aeration interval over than 240 minutes, a negative relationship between two parameters was found indicating the occurrence of abnormal(maybe anaerobic) degradation. The amount of added nitrogen also affected composting of PMS resulting in the increase of $CO_2$ production and temperature. Semi-field tests using 100kg PMS in a static pile sysem showed that PMS could be composted efficiently under optimal environmental conditions. The parameters determining efficiency of composting such as C/N ratio, aeration, moisture content, and pH need to be monitored.