TURNED AERATED PILE (TAP)

Faster, better compost on the smallest possible footprint.

The Turned Aerated Pile (TAP) is the fastest way to make compost on a large scale. Unlike static piles, turned aerated pile systems are turned 2 to 3 times per week to break up organic material, re-establish porosity and re-wet the compost. Turned aerated pile systems require below grade aeration systems to allow for regular turning without the hassle of re-positioning above grade piping. GMT specializes in below grade reversing aeration system design. Odors are managed using bio-filters and bio-covers that meet the most stringent air quality regulations. The compact footprint makes it possible to put a facility inside a building and also minimize the stormwater collection requirements for outdoor installations.

TAP systems need efficient extended trapezoidal pile side discharge turners such as the Vermeer CT1010 which will turn a mass bed at a rate of up to 2000 cubic yards per hour. The turned aerated pile design allows for the most efficient handing, smallest footprint, and the highest throughput possible. A six acre site with two equipment operators can process over 300 tons per day (110,000 tons per year) from the initial grinding process to the final loadout making this the most streamlined and profitable system available today.

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In 2009 at Lenz Enterprises, we retrofitted and expanded this facility by developing ways to manage food waste, manure, chicken DAF and yard waste mixtures and turning frequencies that allowed us to do curing without forced aeration in a continuous extended bed outdoors without odor impacts. This allows less expensive designs so that forced aeration is only placed in the most needed part of the operations. It also allows asphalt to be used for the curing areas.

A GMT TAP was installed at the fully enclosed Compost Factory in Puyallup Washington which was built in 1999 (and is still running today!). The Compost Factory included several significant improvements in riser durability, wireless temperature probes and process automation for managing airflows and managing batch data, and the water removal methods allowing this system to alternate between blowing and sucking air into and out of the piles. In 2001 we incorporated a procedure to do an insulated Aerated Static Pile 3-day sanitation procedure in the middle of the operations allowing the use of collected leachate for rewetting during the first half of the composting process.

EnviroSmart Composting Facility in Delta, BC had been composting for 15 years using ASP and static pile composting systems. They needed to expand their capacity and increase the rate of composting to handle the increasing food waste stream from the Metro Vancouver area. Daryl Goodwin, owner of EnviroSmart, was looking for a company that could both design and provide aeration equipment for the facility upgrade. He contacted GMT and after a preliminary facility evaluation, we recommended a Turned Aerated Pile (TAP) system. Read the full story >>>