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NEW!!
Rocket
Accelerated
Compost
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Johnstown
Recycling
and
Worm Farm
Johnstown,
Slanemore, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, Ireland.
Contact:
Michael Dolan @ 086 - 2599 165 / info@johnstownrecycling.com
IN
VESSEL COMPOSTING
New Organic Composting Facility
Johnstown Recycling would
like to announce the opening
of their new Organic
Composting Facility
The new
facility is the only one of its kind in the midlands, in so far as it
organically recycles all biodegradable waste - including Food Waste -
and turns it into compost. The company is fully licenced to accept
food waste, cardboard, green waste and paper - and uses an In Vessel
system, which meets all European Union regulations.
With an
increasing emphasis on environmentally safe methods of waste
disposal, it is clear that the new operation is a unique opportunity
for a range of businesses - e.g. hotels, restaurants, supermarkets,
etc - to safely and legally dispose of kitchen waste. |
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Over the next
few years, under EU legislation, disposal of biodegradable waste will
no longer be accepted by landfill - and will, necessarily, be sent to
a recycling or composting facility.
This new
method of waste disposal will be more cost-effective than the present
system of landfill use. In this regard, Johnstown Recycling has
structured its operation so that, not only can the waste be collected
from clients' premises - but the company's charges have been held at
extremely competitive levels. |
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Composting
System
The CCS
composting process at the Johnstown facility consists of the
following steps -
The CCS
composting process begins with the blending of clean source-separated
feed-stock materials to achieve the proper balance of nutrients,
moisture and porosity for optimal composting. The CCS in-vessel
composting system is a computerised tunnel composting system. |
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The in-vessel
system is used for the initial processing of materials within an
enclosed environment - so that odours and leachate can be completely
contained and controlled, temperatures manipulated and vermin
excluded. The in-vessel system utilises a computerised process
control system to regulate airflow through the composting tunnels -
via a temperature feedback cycle. |
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The computer
system is set up to log critical data, so that regulatory standards
for temperature monitoring and reporting can be easily met. All
process air from the in-vessel system is forced through biofilters to
remove odours.
Once materials
have been stockpiled for a prolonged period of time, they are
screened to retrieve bulking materials - such as wood chip - in
addition to large physical contaminants - such as plastic, rocks,
metal cans and other inert matter. Once screened, the finished
compost can be stored until it is delivered in bulk to end-users - or
is blended with other materials to produce bulk or bagged topsoil,
potting soils, organic fertilisers or custom growing media and
delivered to markets for sale.
Materials
Mixing
An auger
mixer, powered by a farm tractor or front-end loader's power take-off
unit can be used to mix various feed-stock materials into a
homogeneous blend. The auger mixer comes equipped with a scale, so
that the different feed-stocks and bulking materials can be blended
according to these recipes by weight and volume.
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Factors to be
controlled in the mixture include - nitrogen, carbon, moisture,
particle size, microbial inoculation and porosity or free air space.
Once a
proportionate batch is created, the blend is left in the mixer until
fully homogenized. This takes approximately 5-10 minutes. The blend,
suitable for composting, is then transferred into the loading bay
section by conveyor.
Other methods
of material mixing and blending can be used - such as simple turning
with a front-end loader or blending - using a specialised blending bucket. |
Image
Courtesy of Engineered
Compost
Systems
U.S.A. |
In-Vessel
Tunnels
Initial
composting occurs within the CCS in-vessel tunnels. These concrete
tunnels are 10 metres long by 5.5 metres wide, with a composting mass
height of between 2 and 2.2 metres - giving a capacity of
approximately 120 cubic metres. Loading occurs with the opening of
one of the two hinged steel doors at either end of the tunnel.
The tunnels
have numerous aeration grates embedded in the floor, which are
connected to a series of aeration pipes buried in the concrete floor.
This allows air - blown into the bottom of the tunnel - to permeate
through the composting mass. An exhaust duct is located in the
tarpaulin roof to draw process air out of the tunnel with the use of
another blower and force it through a biofilter. The doors are sealed
with a watertight gasket and the tarpaulin roof is bolted tight to
the tunnels walls with a rubber gasket to ensure a sealed roof. When
it is time to unload the composting materials, the unloading door is
opened and the loading shovel drives into the tunnel and removes the material.
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All leachate
generated in the process is collected in the aeration piping system,
which doubles as a leachate collection system and makes its way to a
storage tank through the leachate piping network. The tunnel doors
are lined with a high-density epoxy coating on the interior and
painted with epoxy paint on the exterior to prevent corrosion. Two
access ports for inserting the RTD temperature probes are located in
the unloading door to allow for temperature measurement at both ends
of the pile. |
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Process
Control System
The CCS
in-vessel system comes with a personal computer (PC) - using Windows
XP operating software that is networked to a programmeable logic
controller (PLC). Inputs to the PLC are listed according to each
tunnel, which can be monitored individually or for each tunnel. Input
data include temperature, variable speed drive efficiency and airflow rates.
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Temperature is
registered on the Celsius scale and airflow rate is registered as a
percentage of the blower capacity. Data logging trends include tunnel
identification, blower speeds, variable frequency drive (VFD)
efficiency and temperature. Temperature logs are stored on the
hard-drive as a data-base file (DBF) for each tunnel and each batch
of compost. The PC itself is linked to a modem, which allows remote
monitoring of the system and alterations to process variables by
named operators. |
Aeration System
The in-vessel
tunnel system has a positive and negative blower for each tunnel -
both of which are controlled by variable frequency drives that are
modulated to maintain a differential pressure on the system.
Material
Receipt
The
following provides a list of acceptable and non-acceptable materials
in the incoming loads.
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Acceptable |
Not Acceptable |
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Garden
Materials:
Lawn clippings
Leaves
Old plants
Cut flowers
Tree primings
Weeds
Shrub trimmings
Wastewater
Sludges
Food
based Sludges
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Garden
Materials:
Rocks
Litter
Broken tools
Garden machinery
Used garden furniture
Empty oil,
pesticide or fertilizer containers |
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Kitchen
Materials:
Vegetables
Fruit
Tea bags
Coffee grinds
and paper filters
Pasta and rice
Cereals
Plate scrappings
Bread
Meat and bones
Egg shells
Cheese
Fish skin and bones
Paper napkins
and towels
Cereal,
cracker and biscuit boxes (no plastic liners)
Paper egg cartons |
Kitchen
Materials:
Plastic bags
Sweet and
crisp wrappers
Food tins
Beer and
mineral cans
Household batteries
Cutlery
Milk cartons
Crockery
Light bulb
Plastic yogurt containers
Glass jars
Plastic meshing
Styrafoam
cups, plates or bowls
Old pots and pans
Aerosol cans
Tin or
aluminum foil
Plastic butter
or margarine tubs
Plastic milk bottles
Mineral bottles
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Johnstown
Recycling, Slanemore, Johnstown,
Mullingar,
Co. Westmeath, Ireland.
Contact:
Michael Dolan @ 086 - 2599 165
e-mail:
info@johnstownrecycling.com |
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