Carbon Release Issues of Treatments
Carbon Release in Treatment Process
Traditional compost and fast fermentation decompose the organic matters by means of microbes, so the carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) are released during the process. Resulting that a massive loss of carbon in organics (approximately 50%~60%). Carbon dioxide and methane have been proven as the most important factors of the global warming, especially the green-house effect resulted from the methane is about 300 times greater than the carbon dioxide.
A Latent Cost of Our Environment
From the formula below, we can calculate the amount of carbon dioxide release for processing 1 ton of organic waste by traditional compost, which is equal to 0.73 ton (Formula I). According to the price of carbon trading market, the average cost of carbon right is about USD$15 (Data from European Climate Exchange 2008 http://barchart.com/detailedquote/futures/CQH09). So when using traditional compost to treat organic waste, as a result that the cost of carbon dioxide pollution is about USD$10 per ton of wastes treated.
1 ton of organic waste x 40 % (weight of solid material) x 50 % (carbon loss in process) = 0.73 ton………(Formula I)
“W” is equal to the ratio of molecular weight of carbon dioxide and carbon, which is about 3.67.
The Loss of Organic Matter
Either the organic waste is treated by traditional compost, mechanical compost, fast fermentation, Biogas, landfill or even throwing away without treatment all rely on the decomposition process of microbes. And the massive release of carbon dioxide and methane in decomposition process is natural. The gases exhausted not only increase the Greenhouse Effect, but also cause the loss of organic matter, thus reduce organic content in soil.
Two Facts about the Traditional Process
- Traditional compost relies on long-period stack of organic matters, which the microbes “decompose” the organics and release carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). The end product can only be after reaching fully ripened can it applied to the soil.
- Traditionally the fast fermentation also relies on microbes to “decompose” organic matters and release carbon dioxide. The process were not completed as of too short period, it requires 30 more days to stack for applying on to soil.
An innovative Technology – Composting-free Technology
The composition of organic waste is carbon (C), hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), nitrogen (N), sulfur (S), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and trace mineral elements. While traditional compost & fast fermentation decompose organic matters by means of microbes, carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) are released during the ripen process, as a result that the carbon contentment is lost massively (approximately 50%~60%). Conversely, Composting-free Technology applies organic enzymes as catalyst to “react”, and as the reaction period is very short, there is no loss of carbon. Compare to the traditional compost and fast fermentation, the Composting-free Technology can totally achieve the goal of carbon dioxide reduction.
Illustration of Carbon Sequestration from Composing-free process
Composting-free Technology is fully capable of carbon sequestration. As Composting-free Technology does not use microbes to decompose the wastes, and only very short period of time is required for reaction. So there are no CO2-emission-related issues, only slight traces of carbon content are released during treatment. It is just like humans exhausting gas after food digestion (i.e. fart), and in fact, the Composting-free Technology is inspired from the study of human digestion process. However, for traditional compost/fast fermentation, about 50~60% of carbon content is lost by carbon dioxide emission.
The following figure is the composition of dry organic waste before treatment, we can see that the carbon content is high and the NPK content are very low.
The following figures show the composition of organic waste after traditional treatments (compost, fast fermentation, Biogas, landfill etc.). We can see that the carbon content had been reduced dramatically and the NPK content are still low.
The following figure is the composition of organic waste after Composing-free treatment. We can see that the carbon content had no difference, and the NPK content has been adjusted to higher level. Why this happens?
This is because our proprietary formula (organic enzymes nutritive additives) was added during Composting-free process, and the nutritive additives will be exactly adjusted according to the customer’s requirements and purposes. The end product of Composting-free fulfills the standard of high quality fertilizer.
The End Product of Composting-free is the Best Carbon Reservoir
There are many techniques of carbon sequestration available now, i.e. compress and pipe the carbon dioxide to the deeper layer of earth. But neither way can be as effective as using the soil as a nature reservoir to keep the carbon. Why soil can nourish all the livings? It is because it contains rich organic substance and minerals. Since there is no carbon loss during the composting-free process, therefore we sequestrated carbon inside the end products. By means of absorption of crops and soil, we could transfer the organic carbon into new vitality while applying it onto the soil.
Here we take 100 (kg) of kitchen waste as sample and assume the water content is 80%.
Please find the table below which listed the difference of composition before and after treatment.
- Traditional compost:60-day stack period.
- Fast fermentation:3-day treatment, followed by 30-day stack.
- Composting-free Technology:1 hour treatment, 3~24 hours of drying, 2kg formula is added.
From above table we can see very obvious that the loss of solid material in traditional compost or fast fermentation is about 50%~60%. It is because the wastes are decomposed by the microbes through a long period of time, and the carbon is released into air in the form of carbon dioxide. As a result, the recycled product retained only 15% of the weight of the original input.
In contrast, the processing period of Composting-free Technology is very short and without gases emission (no reduction of carbon-content). And by adding 1~2% formula (enzymes & additives) during the process, we can get 102% wet fertilizer and 33% dried fertilizer separately.Since the reaction period of Composting-free treatment is only 1 hour, it is possible to transfer wastes into wet fertilizer optionally.This can cut down the period and the energy cost of drying. Thus in agricultural field, the most economical way is to apply the wet fertilizer to the soil right after treatment, and save the cost of drying and keeping.