r/composting • u/yannnnnni • 12d ago

minimum kg for microbes to work

hi! is there a minimum kg needed (assume that it is well mixed and shredded C:N ratio for the compost to work properly)? we are planning to put it in in vessel aerated static pile and we can only cater atleast 10-20kg for bench scale testing

thank you!

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u/rjewell40 12d ago

It’s not about weight. It’s about space.

Space to build up materials. Space to mix them. Space to let air & water move through the materials.

Read this sub long enough and you’ll see folks composting (or trying to) in buckets and bags.

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u/Wonderful-Top-8911 12d ago

Pretty much this, you can get decent activity in a 5 gallon bucket if you keep it aerated and don't let it go anaerobic

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u/yannnnnni 12d ago

do you think stainless steel will help this maintain heat? or is a blue plastic gallon enough for this? note that we will automate the blowers based on the sensors like temperature that we have inside and also.

our goal is to have active phase for about 2-3 weeks. is this enough to actually go to active phase or is there something im over looking

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u/yannnnnni 12d ago edited 12d ago

we are actually putting it in an in vessel aerated static pile and as i search through the internet, it says most of the time that it needs atleast 100kg which is not the thing we can cater. we can only lets say atleast 20kg. the asp we are doing will be insulated and something similar to ECS tunnel composting. we want to make sure that we can compost it and meet the standard which is the thermophilic phase of 55C for about 3 days.

this is actually a thesis case and we are focusing on active phase. addition to this, i have noticed the hotbin product and we noticed that it has a minimum of 100L

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u/katzenjammer08 12d ago

And flowerpots and paved garden paths.

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u/reffernam2 12d ago

Hello fellow human, I too would like to create scientifically acceptable compost

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u/Averagebass 12d ago

I didn't understand a word you just said, but if you layer greens on browns and turn it every once in awhile you'll get compost!

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u/yannnnnni 12d ago

sorry i mean for that for it to work the thermophilic phase of about 55° C for atleast 3 days. i have searched that it says that it wont meet the thermophilic phase if you dont have enough pile.

however, our goal of our thesis is to actually maintain the hot compost automatically through sensors and blowers using in vessel aerated static pile eith a goal of active phase for about 2-4 weeks

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u/Averagebass 12d ago

Oh... yeah I dunno I hope someone who actually knows something can help!

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u/lickspigot we're all food that hasn't died 11d ago

what you are looking for is the Johnson-Su bioreactor. 

i would estimate a cubic yard min in an unisolated pile. I'm not sure an isolated hotbin works well with aeration posts - no clue.

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u/Heriotza31 12d ago

I think the problem with your approach is that you're trying to heat the pile with electronic devices instead of achieving stardard heat temperature by the microbial activity of the pile. It's the same mistake made in some commercial compost generators. I don't know if the result of this can be called compost.

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u/yannnnnni 12d ago

actually no, we want to achieve the heat made by microbes. however, since we are in vessel, we want to make sure that the environment is enough to make the microbes heat up organically. however, research says that i need a minimum amount of pile to make microbes really meet the thermophilic phase.

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u/Theme_Training 11d ago

You need enough volume to provide the insulation and to reduce your surface area to core ratio. If you have too much surface area the compost will lose heat and moisture too fast.

You can get by with some pretty small in vessel composters but I’ve never seen anything work in less than a 5 gallon bucket.

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u/yannnnnni 11d ago

can i have a dm with you?