Felix Kutsanedzie, George NK Rockson, Elias D Aklaku, Charles Quansah and Ato Bart-Plange
Keywords: Composting, microorganism, maturity, decomposition, composting systems.
Abstract: Temperature development during composting was studied in Turned windrow and Dome Aerated Technology composting systems to ascertain their effectiveness in the reduction or elimination of pathogens in the final product. Also, an assessment of potential health hazard was investigated. Temperature, moisture and pH development in the two composting systems were monitored for thirteen weeks to assess their effects on total viable count, total coliform count, total fungi count and helminth eggs count. The Hydrogen ion concentration (pH) and moisture measured in both systems gave a p-values of 0.25 and 0.68 respectively at ? = 5%, indicating existence of no significant difference between these parameters in both systems. Generally, the total viable count reduced while total fungi increased at the end of week 12 in all the systems. However, total coliform reduced to 0 during week 4. Microorganisms such as Listeria spp., Penicillium spp. and Mucor spp. survived the process in the Dome Aerated Technology system.
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