Sobieraj, K.; Giez, K.; Koziel, J.A.; Białowiec, A. Assessment of Emissions and Potential Occupational Exposure to Carbon Monoxide during Biowaste Composting. PLOS ONE 2024, 19, e0290206, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0290206.
Sobieraj, K.; Giez, K.; Koziel, J.A.; Białowiec, A. Assessment of Emissions and Potential Occupational Exposure to Carbon Monoxide during Biowaste Composting. PLOS ONE 2024, 19, e0290206, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0290206.
Sobieraj, K.; Giez, K.; Koziel, J.A.; Białowiec, A. Assessment of Emissions and Potential Occupational Exposure to Carbon Monoxide during Biowaste Composting. PLOS ONE 2024, 19, e0290206, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0290206.
Sobieraj, K.; Giez, K.; Koziel, J.A.; Białowiec, A. Assessment of Emissions and Potential Occupational Exposure to Carbon Monoxide during Biowaste Composting. PLOS ONE 2024, 19, e0290206, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0290206.
Abstract
To date, only a few studies focused on carbon monoxide (CO) production during waste composting; all targeted on CO inside piles. Here, the CO net emissions from compost piles and the assessment of worker’s occupational risk of exposure to CO at large-scale composting plants are shown for the first time. CO net emissions were measured at two plants processing green waste, sewage sludge, or undersize fraction of municipal solid waste. Effects of the location of piles (hermetised hall vs. open yard) and turning (before vs. after) were studied. Higher CO net emission rates were observed from piles located in a closed hall. The average CO flux before turning was 23.25 and 0.60 mg‧m-2‧h-1 for hermetised and open piles, respectively, while after – 69.38 and 5.11 mg‧m-2‧h-1. The maximum CO net emissions occurred after the compost was turned (1.7x to 13.7x higher than before turning). The top sections of hermetised piles had greater CO emissions compared to sides. Additionally, 5% of measurement points of hermetised piles switched to ‘CO sinks’. The 1-h concentration in hermetised composting hall can reach max. ~50 mg CO∙m-3 before turning, and >115 mg CO∙m-3 after, exceeding the WHO thresholds for a 1-h and 15-min exposures, respectively.
Keywords
solid waste management; waste treatment; environmental risk assessment; municipal waste; indoor air quality; gas emissions
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Waste Management and Disposal
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
