title: Assessment of a particle size fractionation as a technology for reducing heavy metal, salinity and impurities from compost produced by municipal solid waste.
abstract: A physical fractionation of a compost obtained by municipal solid wastes (MSW) was conducted by dry-sieving process, to quantify coarse impurities and assess the distribution of nutrients, heavy metals and salinity values in particle size fractions of 2, 1.2-2, 0.8-1.2, 0.4-0.8, 0.2-0.4, 0.1-0.2 and <0.1mm diameter. The whole unfractionated compost and all physical fractions were analyzed for the same chemical parameters. The results showed that the studied compost was of a low grade due to high salinity and heavy metal concentrations, and the presence of coarse impurities, mainly glass. The physical fractionation analysis showed that heavy metal and base cations concentrations, and salinity values significantly increased with decreasing of particle size, whereas macro nutrients such as C, N and P were more evenly distributed among the different particle size fractions. Overall, our results showed that the removal of selected particle size fractions <0.8mm and coarse impurities (e.g. glass impurity >2mm) could significantly improve the compost quality without reduce its fertilization potential. We concluded that particle size fractionation is a feasible and sustainable approach to improve composted MSW materials for their safe recycle in agriculture.
authors: Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran. Electronic address: Z.Sharifi@uok.ac.ir.
authors: Zahed
authors: Z
authors: Sharifi
authors: Department of Agrifood Production and Environmental Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
authors: Giancarlo
authors: G
authors: Renella
mesh_terms: D005591:Chemical Fractionation / Q000379:methods*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007492:Iran; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000032:analysis*; D010316:Particle Size; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000379:methods*; D054712:Salinity; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D062611:Solid Waste / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D019216:Metals, Heavy; D012987:Soil; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D062611:Solid Waste
keywords: Heavy metals; Impurities removal technology; MSW compost; Salinity; Size fractionation