A field-scale commercial compost study was conducted to evaluate the impact of the Bio-Environmental Resource Recovery International (BERRI) Microbial Assisted Regeneration System (MARS) process, specifically its proprietary microbial inocula, on compost production of various agricultural waste and municipal solid waste (MSW) mixtures. Treated and control windrows were constructed to compare the MARS inoculum by quantity and quality of compost produced, organic stabilization time, and individual component sorting (i.e., green waste, wood, agriculture waste, food waste, MSW, C&D debris, and tires). Specific VOC and SVOC compounds, as well as a common pesticide, carbaryl, were added specifically for this study and the compounds were analyzed for degradation rates. The quality of the compost product was assessed using a method developed for classifying municipal solid waste compost. The quantity of compost produced was determined by screening the entire volumes of each pile to determine a gross production of compost for each pile. Compost samples were analyzed by headspace gas chromatography mass spectrometry for VOCs, methylene chloride extraction and gas chromatography mass spectrometry for SVOCs, and methanol extraction and high-performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry for carbaryl. The quality of compost was found to have a very low nutrient capacity making the compost only useable as a soil conditioner. Treated piles showed a significantly larger amount of compost production and a decreased time for organic stabilization. No significant degradation of plastics or woods components was observed in any of the treatments used in the study.

Deliberately lit fires make up over 15% of all fires in New Zealand buildings yet they are typically omitted from the design brief for fire engineering purposes. This report examines where deliberately lit fires should be included as part of the fire engineering design by examination of all deliberately lit fires recorded in the New Zealand Fire Incident Reporting System (NZ FIRS) between the years 1996 and 2006. The main types of buildings identified where consideration of deliberately lit fires within the design would provide benefits are: · Prisons · Psychiatric institutions · Schools · Crowd activities · Attached accommodation The report also examined what is required to include deliberately lit fires as part of the design process. Based on an analysis of the fire incident statistics, the majority of deliberately lit fires are the result of unplanned activities and existing design fires will be adequate. Two critical fire scenarios were identified as exceeding these requirements, the ignition of multiple fires and the use of accelerants. Greater life safety benefits are obtained by considering accelerants. In the case of multiple fires, each fire is likely to be within the capabilities of a fire engineered building however a number of such fires may overwhelm the fire protection features of a building. A number of issues for the fire engineer to consider are briefly discussed. In the case of accelerants, a number of experiments were completed to characterise the heat release rate and species production of a Molotov cocktail based on the fuel volume used. A second round of experiments extended this work by examining the scenario where a Molotov cocktail containing 1000 milliliters of petrol was deployed within a stairwell.

No description available.