Research to Improve Compost Facility Air Emissions Permitting

Tim O'Neill, Engineered Compost Systems 

Presentation Description:

VOC emissions, and their associated odors, are a critical component in permitting and operating compost facilities in Washington State. Default VOC emission factors adopted by regulators across the US, however, come from a non-systematic collection of widely varying source tests conducted between 2000-2010. In this presentation, Tim O’Neill will describe current research being conducted by Washington State University (WSU) and Engineered Compost Systems (ECS) to develop guidelines for regulators and process designers to predict VOC emission factors from compost facilities, and to better understand the process parameters that affect those emissions.

Bio: Tim founded ECS in 1999 which has provided process technology and consulting to composting facilities around the world.  He leads ECS’s applied research activities on compost process dynamics, degradation of bioplastics during composting, and compost air emissions. Tim is a Trustee for the US Compost Research and Education Foundation and regularly teaches classes on facility design, process optimization and the management of odor and VOC emissions.