Journal of Water and Environment Technology, Vol.1, No.

2, 2003

EFFECT OF THE NUMBER OF THE VERTICAL PIPES FOR THE

PASSIVE AERATION ON THE COMPOSTING RATE

Y. B. Sylla; T. Watanabe; K. J. Cho and M. Kuroda

Dept. of Civil Eng., Gunma Univ., 1-5-1 Tenjin, Kiryu, Gunma 376-8515, JAPAN

ABSTRACT
The purpose of this experimental study was to clarify the effect of the number of the vertical perforated pipes on
the composting rate and the extent of organic matter degradation. To achieve this target, composting was
performed on the simulated organic solid waste, blended with wood chips and inoculums using a laboratory-scale
composting reactor equipped with the vertical pipes as air suppliers for the passive aeration. The dog food (DF)
was used as a simulated organic waste to be composted. For the aeration purposes, two, four and six vertical
perforated pipes, which top wall was heated at the initiation phase, were embedded in the reactor at Runs A, B and
C, respectively. The composting was monitored by regularly measuring the bed temperature at different points
during the composting process. Thermophilic temperatures, about 55°C, were observed within the bed during each
of the composting runs. The final conversions of carbon were, approximately, 86 to 96%. On the basis of a simple
heat balance obtained under a steady reaction proceeding, the composting rate was analyzed. The composting
reaction rate increased in increasing in the number of the vertical pipes during the composting process. The
reaction rate was expressed as a first order equation and the reaction rate constant was calculated.

KEYWORDS
Composting; Passive aeration; Temperature, Vertical pipes, Composting rate

INTRODUCTION
Composting is a method of solid waste management whereby the organic component of the solid waste
is biologically decomposed under controlled conditions to a state in which it can be handled, stored/or
applied to the land without adversely affecting the environment (Golueke 1977). Aeration is an important
factor for controlling the process as it ensures the growth of adequate aerobic microbe populations and the
development of stabilizing temperatures. In any compost system, the air supplied to the compost piles has
the dual function of supplying sufficient oxygen and removing water by heat (Nancy et al., 1996).
Based on the method of aeration, composting technologies can be divided into three modes: forced
aeration, natural aeration and passive aeration. Forced aeration requires use of blower for air supply.
Natural aeration occurs simply by diffusion and convection, governed by the exposed surfaces and their
respective properties (Barrington et al., 2003 and Fernandes et al., 1994). The later method is not
recommended for wastes with high moisture content. In the passive aeration, air is drawn into the
perforated pipes by convective currents developed by temperature differences between ambient air and
the warm decomposing compost mass (Sartaj et al., 1997).
Passive aeration, which uses the natural convection for air feed, is a sustainable and promising method
to compost (Barrington et al., 2003 and Patni et al., 2001). Several researchers have studied such systems
and widely disseminated some good results according to their own configurations (Barrington et al., 2003,
McGarry et al., 1978; Mathur et al., 1988, 1990, 1991; Nancy et al., 1996, Patni et al., 1992, 1994; Sartaj
et al., 1997 and Solano et al., 2001). However, the efficiency of the passive aeration using the horizontal
pipes for air feed is limited as it is difficult to ventilate the pipes by the natural convection. In order to
increase the air feed by the natural convection, it is important to use the vertical pipes rather than the
horizontal ones. The vertical pipes enhance the natural convection by due buoyant forces, as the pipes are

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heated by the enthalpy generated from the composting reaction which is an exothermic reaction. Partially
heated pipes greatly boost the ventilation effect by the natural convection (Shimizu and Morita, 1962).
However, there have been no studies of the effect of the vertical pipes on the passive aeration and the
composting rate.
The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of the number of the perforated pipes, embedded
vertically in the composting bed on the composting rate.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Materials used for the experiments
The substrate used for the composting was a commercial dog food (DF) VITA-ONE softTM (Japan Pet
Food Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan), since it has shown a good reproducibility and consistency in the
degradation of organic matter during the composting process (Nakasaki et al., 1998a).
Based on the preliminary analysis, the carbon and nitrogen contents of the DF were, respectively, 42%
and 4% by dry weight basis. Accordingly, the carbon to nitrogen ratio was approximately 10:1. The solid
particles were reduced to a uniform size of about 3 to 4 mm and were well mixed before the use. The pH
of the DF and its moisture content (MC) were 5.1 and 8.4%, respectively. The MC of the raw mixture was
adjusted to 60% during all the composting runs. The raw materials for the composting experiments
consisted of the dry DF as the main substrate to be composted, wood chips as bulking agent and
inoculums as seed material. Table 1 lists the initial properties of the raw materials of Runs A, B and C,
respectively.

Table 1 Characteristics of initial raw wastes for composting

Property Run A Run B Run C

Moisture content (%) 60 60 60

Volatile solids (g) 5.7 6.6 10.4
pH (water extract) 5.1 5.3 5.2
Carbon content (g, dry weight) 191 185 186
Dog food (g dry weight) 455 441 443
Wood Chips (g dry weight) 199 166 181
Inoculums (g dry weight) 125 293 252
Water content (g) 351 551 393
Mixing ratio of the raw materials (-) 4:2:1 3:2:1 3:1:1

Experimental apparatus and procedure

The schematic diagram of the experimental system is shown in Fig. 1. The reactor was rectangular and
was 300 mm high, 200 mm length and 200 mm wide. To supply air in the composting mass, the
perforated pipes were embedded in the bed vertically. The number of the pipes were two, four and six for
Runs A, B and C, respectively. The distance between the different pipes were 20, 10 and 6 cm for Runs A,
B and C, respectively.

In order to reduce the lag period of the initiation of the composting reaction, the upper wall of the
pipes was heated from the room temperature to as high as 55°C by means of an electric heater. It should
be noted that the heating time depends on how fast the bed temperature increases to the set level. Once
the bed temperature reaches about 50 to 55°C due to the occurrence of the active biodegradation reaction
to hold a self-heating condition, which is the exothermic reaction, the applied electric current is switched

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off. The bed is aerated through the convective forces, created by temperature differences between the
composting material and the ambient air.
The thermocouples (Type-K) were inserted in the packed bed at different depths: bottom, middle and
top. The bed temperature is the average value of the three measured points. The composting was
monitored by a continuous measurement of the bed temperature variation of each of the composting runs.
The exhaust gas was recuperated into a gasholder to estimate the gas volume evolution rate throughout
the process.

2
4 3

5 1. Electric heater
6 2. Temperature recorder
3. Reactor
6 8 4. Thermocouple
1 5. CO2 meter
7 6. Gas holder
7 7. Composting mass
8. Perforated pipes

Fresh Air by the natural convection

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the composting reactor

Analytical methods
The concentration of CO2 was measured using an online infrared analyzer (Shimadzu, Kyoto, Japan).
The temperatures were monitored by means of thermocouples (Type-K), which were connected to a data
recorder. The exhaust gas volume was regularly measured by means of a high-grade syringe and a gas
pack (Model, I94, Mitsuba, Tokyo). The MC of the sample was determined from the weight loss after
drying in an oven at 105°C for 24 hours. The carbon dioxide production rate was computed on the basis
of total gas volume evolution rate and the fraction molar of the measured value of CO2.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Temperature profiles
The bed temperature profiles of each of the composting runs are shown in Fig. 2. At the beginning of
the composting, after the raw materials were initially put into the reactor, particularly when the upper wall
of the perforated pipes was heated, a rapid increase in temperature was observed in all of the three
composting runs.
In Run A, a maximum temperature of about 54.9°C was reached inside the bed within almost 37 hours,
which corresponds to the higher degree of the bacterial activity. Temperature remained between 40 to
45°C within 450 h, followed by a gradual drop to ambient level. The temperature rising to the
thermophilic level confirmed that the passive aeration with the vertical pipes was efficient for Run A.
At the outset of the process in Run B, a quick increase in the temperature of up to 57.9°C was observed
in the reactor within the first 24 hrs. Temperature ranged between 45 to 49°C within 400 hrs thereafter,

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decreased to ambient level. It is apparent that thermophilic temperatures were predominant in Run B,
suggesting the effectiveness of the aeration.
In Run C, a peak temperature of 65°C was found in the bed within the first 10 hours of the composting.
This supports that the six perforated pipes exerted a great effect on the aeration rate, which caused a fast
rise in the bed temperature at earlier stage of Run C, than for Runs A and B. In Run C, thermophilic
temperature ranged between 48 to 53°C throughout the whole process.
The higher bed temperature profiles observed in Run C followed by Run B, could be likely due to the
larger number of the vertical ventilation pipes, which provided more oxygen into the composting mass for
better aeration since according to Fernandes et al. (1994), a limited aeration can be improved by
increasing the number of the pipes in the pile’s bottom zone. Furthermore, the distance between the pipes
seems to facilitate the air penetration into the composting pile. For illustration, the distance between the
pipes as mentioned earlier of Run C was 6 cm, compared to 20 and 10 cm for runs A and B, respectively.
With regards to these findings, it could be said that the composting process fundamentally appears
effective in the three cases since after the initiation period, a great thermophilic ranges temperatures were
kept at the steady state in each of the composting runs. Several researchers have found similar
thermophilic range (Barrington et al., 2003, Fernandes et al., 1994, Mathur et al., 1990, Nancy et al.,
1997, Sartaj et al., 1997 and Solano et al., 2001).

Run A
60 Run B
Temperature (°C)

Run C

40

20
0 100 200 300 400 500
Time (h)

Fig. 2. Mean bed temperature over time for different composting runs

Conversion of carbon of the three composting runs

As the initial and final carbon contents in the composting raw materials were assessed on the solid
basis before and after each of the composting runs, the final conversion of carbon, ζ could be defined by
Eq. (1). The final conversion of carbon, estimated on the solid basis after the composting were,
respectively, 86, 90 and 96% for Runs A, B and C. Comparative values of about 80 to 90% were, found
by other researchers when forced aerations modes were used (Nakasaki et al., 1998a and 1998b).
Co − C
f
ζ = (1)
Co
where ζ, Co and Cf are , respectively, the conversion of carbon, the initial carbon content in the raw
mixture and the carbon remaining after the composting. Nakasaki et al. (1998a) reported that the
conversion of carbon during the composting process could be calculated based on the ratio of carbon loss
as CO2 to the carbon contained in the DF alone. In our investigation, the concentrations of CO2 from
about 0 to 19% in the exhaust gas were detected during each of the experimental runs. However, it was

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 Journal of Water and Environment Technology, Vol.1, No.2, 2003

unfortunately difficult to accurately determine the amount of CO2 evolved and its evolution rate, because
the airflow rate was not explicitly measured in the passive aeration.

Effect of the number of the vertical pipes on the composting rate

The bed temperature difference under a steady state condition of each run (see Fig. 2) should
correspond to the difference between the composting rates. In addition, the different number of the
vertical pipes, which provided varied composting aeration rates among the three runs, may cause the
difference between the temperature profiles. Therefore, the composting rate may be estimated on the basis
of a simple heat balance. The variation of the bed temperature under the steady state condition may be
expressed as follows:
C p ρV
dT
dt
= ∆HM 0
dζ
dt
(
− hA Tb − T * ) (2)

where the left side term of Eq. (2) represents the heat accumulation of the bed [kcal･hr-1] and the right
side terms are, the heat generation by the composting reaction and the heat loss from the reactor walls
[kcal･hr-1], respectively. The effect of the sensible heats of the influent air and exhaust gas and latent heat
by condensation or evaporation on the bed temperature were assumed to be negligible because their flow
and moisture change in the bed were limited.
When the bed temperature is held at a certain steady state, the heat loss from the reactor will be
compensated with the heat generated by the exothermic reaction occurring therein. Hence, at the steady
state, the time rate of the temperature change in the left side of Eq. (2) is equal to zero. This allows the
accumulation term to be set equal to zero, thereby simplifying Eq. (2).
dζ
dt
=
hA
∆ΗM 0
(
Tb − T *) (3)

The overall heat transfer coefficient h related to the heat loss from the reactor wall was estimated to be
approximately 12.7 [kcal･m-2･hr-1･°C-1] by the preliminary experiment. It was difficult to determine the
real enthalpy of the composting reaction, ∆Η , due to a lack of data. Therefore, the nutritional energy of
the DF about 3500 kcal/kg-DF was assumed as the enthalpy of the reaction. Table 2 summarizes the
estimated values of the composting rate from Eq. (3) by using the experimental results of each of the
composting runs.

Table 2 Estimated composting rate at the steady state

Run Pipes number Tb T* Mo (kg DF) dζ
(-) (-) (°C) (°C) (dry weight) (hr-1)
dt
A 2 45.9 29.0 0.5 0.01
B 4 48.7 29.0 0.4 0.02
C 6 51.9 31.2 0.4 0.03

In order to determine the effect of the number of the ventilation pipes on the composting rate, an
attempt was made to correlate the composting rate with the number of the perforated pipes for air supply
in the bed. Fig. 3 shows the effect of the number of the pipes on the composting rate, which was
determined through Eq. (3). It was clearly found that the number of the vertical pipes greatly affects the
composting rate. However, the number of the perforated pipes which should be vertically placed in the
composting pile should be chosen as a function of the reactor dimensions to avoid over aeration of the
composting mass, which usually leads to a high bed temperature increase of over 70°C. At such a high
temperature, bacterial activity is greatly inhibited, which reduce the composting rate.

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 Journal of Water and Environment Technology, Vol.1, No.2, 2003

0.04
Composting rate (h )
-1

0.03

0.02

0.01

0
0 2 4 6 8

Number of pipe (-)

Fig. 3. Relationship between the composting rate and the number of perforated pipes

Haug (1993) reported that the organic matter decomposition during the composting could be modeled
as a first order reaction. The rate equation can be expressed as follows:
dζ
= − kζ (4)
dt
The reaction rate constant (k) for each of the composting runs was calculated by using the
experimental results and were found to be approximately 0.004, 0.006 and 0.009 hr-1 for Runs A, B and C,
respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
The effect of the number of the vertical pipes for air supply in the composting pile on the composting
rate was investigated by measuring the bed temperature variations and the carbon content during the
composting process. From the obtained results, the following conclusions can be drawn:

1) The perforated pipes placed vertically in the composting bed were effective for the passive aeration
by the natural convection.

2) The composting rate was increased in increasing in the number of the perforated pipes placed
vertically in the composting bed within certain limits for air delivery in the composting mass.

3) The composting rate was analyzed based on the heat balance under a steady state condition.

4) The initial heating of the top wall of the vertical pipes was effective on shorting the lag period, often
observed in the composting operations.

5) The effectiveness of placing the perforated pipes vertically in the composting pile could be also
corroborated by the conversions of carbon at the final stage of composting process, which reached
approximately 86, 90 and 96%.

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 Journal of Water and Environment Technology, Vol.1, No.2, 2003

NOMENCLATURE
A = cross sectional area of the composting reactor [m2]
Co = initial amount of carbon in the DF [kg]
Cf = final carbon content after the composting process [kg]
-1 -1
C p = heat specific coefficient [kcal･kg ･°C ]
h = overall heat transfer coefficient [kcal･m-2･hr-1･°C-1]
∆Η = enthalpy of the reaction [kcal･kg-1]
k = reaction rate constant [hr-1]
M0 = initial mass of the DF [kg]
Tb = mean bed temperature [°C]
T*= room temperature [°C]
t = composting time [hr]
V = reactor volume [m3]
ζ = conversion of carbon [-]
ρ = bed density [kg･m-3]

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