2nd International Conference on Civil and Environmental Engineering,

8 – 10 May 2017, Cappadocia, Nevşehir

The aim of this study was to investigate the compostability of water-based paint sludge (PS) originating from the automotive industry. Paint sludge is one of the most problematic wastes encountered by the automotive industry. Paint sludge can not be accepted by landfills because of its high carbon content. However, it has a potential for composting due to its high organic matter content. In this study, two different reactors (C1, C2) were operated to determine the compostability of PS as a disposal/recovery alternative. The influence of using industrial treatment sludge (TS) generated by the same industry as inoculation agent in composting process was also examined. Water-based paint sludge was

mixed with sunflower stalk (SS) as bulking agent. PS and SS were mixed at 8: 2 ratio in C1 reactor, PS, TS and SS were mixed at 4: 4: 2 ratio in C2 reactor. Several parameters such as temperature, dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM) and C/N ratio was monitored during the 28-days composting process. The highest temperatures during the process in the C1 and C2 reactors were determined as 46.5°C and 51.7 °C, respectively. Reactors C1 and C2 yielded DM losses of 13,7% and 16,6%, and OM losses of 12.6% and 13.0%, respectively. The results show that composting method can be used to manage PS. The mixture of PS, TS, and SS at a ratio of 4:4:2 showed the best results in terms of temperature rise, dry matter and organic matter losses. Monitoring the temperature increases at the compost reactors, it can be inferred that a faster microbial degradation was obtained in the C2 reactor. It can be concluded that the efficiency of composting process increase with the addition of TS, and composting process can serve biodrying purposes for PS before it is incinerated at cement kilns as an additional fuel.