[USCC] Calculating Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Composting

[john cossham]

I do not have an answer to this, but it should be noted that material 
decomposing aerobically will only release the CO2 it took in as a plant, or 
the C it took in from it's food, if it's animal material in the composting 
process.  However, if the material decomposes anaerobically, ie it gets 
waterlogged or remains unturned and the O2 in some parts of the pile gets 
used up, this pathway will result in methane (CH4) being released which has 
a global warming activity some 22 times greater than CO2.
Some studies have found that ordinary home composting systems do release 
some methane as they have pockets of low O2 activity, so these issues will 
have to be taken into consideration when calculating the CO2 emissions or 
the CO2 equivalent emissions...
Complicated but interesting!
John in York, UK

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eric Simenson" <eric at bouldercompost.com>
To: <compost at mailman.cloudnet.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2008 2:44 AM
Subject: [USCC] Calculating Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Composting


>  Does anyone have an equation to calculate how much carbon dioxide is 
> released during composting?  I realize it depends on many factors, so 
> ballpark numbers are just fine.
>
> Thanks everyone,
> Eric Simenson
>
> Boulder Compost Co.
> 720-837-3286
> www.bouldercompost.com
>
>