Innovations in design and operation of aeration devices for composting and vermicomposting

Composting has been proved to be a viable practice of organic waste management and resource recovery during sustainable development. The final product compost has great potential for organic agriculture, bioremediation and bioenergy, while the major challenge is minimized environmental load and maximized resource recovery. Currently, the composting trend is economy, efficiency, sustainability, intelligence, and adaptability. According to the ventilation classification, composting was divided into passive ventilation including static and windrow systems, as well as forced ventilation comprising in-vessel reactor vertical and horizontal systems. Additionally, organism earthworm was considered as plug flow reactor or ecosystem engineer and vermicomposting has great potential as form of batch, windrows and flow through system. In order to improve composting efficiency, optimized composting system is required based on material utilization rate, equipment management and maintenance. The objective of this chapter is overviewing the composting systems based on ventilation mode and prospected the development trend as well as proposed the innovation ideals in daily life. It is recommended to combine the economically feasible intelligent control system, and increase innovation technique ideals supporting and application in industrialization and feasible life.