Method of effecting the aerobic thermophilic decomposition of organic waste materials

Claim 1

A process for the aerobic decomposition of animal and other solid organic waste material solely by the action of the host thermophilic bacteria inherently in said material which comprises the steps of: (a) sequentially introducing individual charges of undecomposed organic waste material to a substantial and predetermined depth into the full width of an empty open space at one end of an elongate open-topped composting vessel having upstanding side and end walls and a substantially flat, coplanar perforate bottom, said material introduced into the vessel substantially free of overlying relationship or intermixing with the last previously added charge of material already present in the vessel immediately in advance of said open space; (b) maintaining all charges of the material in the vessel in a quiescent state as and until the last added charge of material has attained thermophilic temperatures; (c) then simultaneously agitating, intermixing and turning, while sequentially advancing in a step-by-step manner the individual charges of material in the vessel toward the other end thereof in the same order in which the individual charges of material were introduced therein, wherein the depth of each charge of advanced material is restored to substantially the original predetermined depth and width to which said individual charge was initially deposited in the empty space at said one end of the vessel, said step-by-step advance accomplished by first removing the oldest, fully decomposed, pasteurized charge of material from the said other end of the vessel thereby providing an empty space in said vessel adjacent said other end into which the next oldest charge of material is then advanced, and after which each of the next progressively older charges of material are sequentially advanced one-by-one toward the said other end of the vessel for in each instance providing a corresponding empty space into which the next subsequently added charge of material is deposited with the foremost end of each but the oldest subsequent charge contacting the rearmost end of the preceding charge and wherein each said subsequently advanced charge of material is substantially free of overlying relationship or intermixing with the next adjacent previously added charge; (d) intermittently supplying, selectively and independently, air under pressure via said perforate bottom to and throughout each individual charge of material in the vessel whenever the oxygen content of any individual charge falls below a predetermined value, at such rates as to augment and promote the growth of the thermophilic bacteria in each particular charge of the material in the vessel.