Notice of RetractionBiological Activities of a Composting Reactor with Batch-Fed Operation

The sawdust was employed as the matrix in a bio-composting reactor and the biological characteristics in terms of the abudanance of microbes, similarity and diversity of biocommunity and the efficiency of organic removal have been investigated in this study. It was found that in the first 30 days, the abudanance of aerobic microbes decreased from 8.09×10⁸cfu/ to 9.27×10⁷cfu/g, and then it maintained approximately 10⁸cfu/g for 35 days, and at the end of the composting cycle, it decreased around 1.3×10⁷cfu/g. Meanwhile, the amphimicrobe slightly increased from 2.75×10⁵cfu/g to 1.81×10⁶ cfu/g in the first 20 days and then it increased to 3.85×10⁸cfu/g on day 40 with a relatively fast speed. From day 40, the abudanance of amphimicrobe was hardly changed. In the first 30 days, the BOD₅ accumulated removal efficiency increased from 27% to 50%, and from day 30 to Day 60, it remained approximately 50%. In the later period of this study, i.e., from Day 60, the removal efficiency decreased to 40% as measured at the end of the composing cycle. Concerning on the degradation rate, it increased to 7 mg·g^-1·d^-1 on Day 30, and then it decreased to 1.4 mg·g^-1·d^-1 at the end of the cycle.