Drying In Porous Media: Equilibrium And Non-Equilibrium Approaches For Composting Processes

A. Pujol[2], S. Pommier[3], G. Debenest[2], M. Quintard[2], and D. Chenu[1]
[1]Veolia Environnement, Limay, France
[2]IMFT, Toulouse, France
[3]INSA Toulouse, Toulouse, France
Published in 2010

To understand origins and consequences of drying phenomenon during composting, a compositional drying model of a partially water-saturated porous media coupled with biodegradation has been developed. The different simulations carried out under COMSOL Multiphysics demonstrate the ability of the model to well describe the compositional drying of a partial water-saturated porous media and point out the importance of drying in the control of organic matter biodegradation. Therefore, drying phenomena must be taken into account in composting models.

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