Monitoring of Oxygen Profile during Composting of Municipal Solid Waste

Oxygen is an important parameter to be monitored during the process of composting. The efficiency of aerobic composting process is mainly dependent on the amount of oxygen that is provided to windrows by proper turning. This study was designed with the main objective to monitor the oxygen profile during composting of municipal solid waste and observe variation in oxygen profile of windrows in which different inoculums were added. It was concluded from this study that the amount of oxygen % was decreased at thermophilic stage and increased at mesophilic stage. The oxygen and temperature of the compost windrow are inversely proportional to each other. The oxygen % were measured at the top of each treatment at two depths of approximately 1 and 4 feet by using OT (Oxygen/ temperature) meter.