Effects of pile-turning frequency on compost quality and changes of chemical and physical properties during plant-scale composting

Pile-turning is an important technical means to control the ventilation, oxygen supply and material blending during trough composting. In order to examine the effect of pile-turning frequency on composting process and product quality, we set up four different control methods of pile-turning. The results show that treatment with pile-turning is better than the one without it in compost maturity level. Treatment of turning every 3 days with the best results: the largest organic matter degradation rate (32.6%), the least nitrogen loss (328.2 mg / kg), has been proven a good control methods of pile-turning.