Internationale Zeitschrift für Abfallressourcen

Abstrakt

Application of an Integrated NIRS Method for Determining the Stability/ Maturity of Compost

Petr Plíva, Martin Dědina, Jiří Pospíšil, Josef Los, Olga Křížová and Květuše Hejátková

Producing compost with consistent stability and maturity is critical for the successful marketing of compost as part of growth media. Therefore, simple and effective method for determination of maturity and stability of compost is needed. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) allows rapid simultaneous determination of chemical and physical properties of organic materials. The previously developed NIRS model in which NIR spectral data were combined with various parameters describing degradability and stability of composts during the composting process (respirometric, photometric, C / N extraction, Solvita™) using well known maturity test and chemical analyzes. This model was used for analysis of compost samples from various composting sites with different technologies and with different composition of starting materials. The measurement revealed that NIRS method can be used as simple, fast, and cheap method for indication of compost maturity.