(DE4220947-C2)      In the composting of (solid and liq.) animal waste, domestic waste water, etc., a grid box palette filled with chopped wheat straw is placed under a tower. The tower has a drop separator directly under the roof and has a channel opening at its foot, which contains a solar heat collector an a ventilator, to supply warm air to the tower. The waste is supplied to the tower (dis)continuously by a conveyor which opens over the palette.    Dil. liq. waste from the palette is collected in a drain pipe, with a filter to remove coarse particles, running out from under the base of the tower into a contaienr. When the container reaches a set level, liq. is pumped out and sprayed from a nozzle at the top of the tower. At the end of the coposting process, recognised optically by darkening of the wheat straw and reduction in its vol. the supply systems are stopped and the straw dried to less than 30 wt.% water by blowing an increased amt. of air through it. The palette is removed from the tower and emptied in a place protected from rain.    USE/ADVANTAGE -   Reduces smell, NH3, etc., emissions and high costs of conventional systems based on sludge, and is low cost.    (EP576389-A2)      To convert animal manure and household sewage into fertiliser compost, without residue and esp. without residual water, all the process stages from mixing with an organic filter and fermentation agent (such as corn straw) to the removal of the dry matter, are effected in a fermentation and drying tower, with an enclosed filtrate container and solar heat collector.    Pref. the base of the fermentation and drying tower is covered with unchopped straw on pallets which are open at the top and permeable to air and liquid at the sides and base surfaces, inserted by a tractor with a front loader or pallet handling. Fresh or stored manure is fed continuously or at intervals to the centre of the pallet, from above, by a pressure feed. The straw retains coarse particles, and the liquid passing through is additionally filtered to pass into a filtrate container. When the fluid in the container exceeds a min. level, it is pumped continuously to a spray at the centre of the tower at its upper end. Part of the descending spray mist is caught by an upper air stream from water evapn. where, at the tower roof, droplets are sepd. and retained. The conc. but liq. manure maintains the moisture level at the pallet for compost rotting at temps. which are not too high to release ammonia. An air channel at one side of the tower base feeds oxygen for the aerobic fermentation of the compost and the spray mist, to give a thermodynamic air operation, which can have fan assistance in the air channel of the solar collector.    ADVANTAGE -   The method gives an effective disposal and conversion of manure waste and sewage in a low cost operation without smell or other emissions.    (EP576389-B1)      Process for the composting of liquid manure, dung and house sewage by the utilisation of uncut wheat straw. The process is described as follows: (a) A latticework box pallet filled with wheat straw (2.2 in Figure 1) is placed on the floor of a tower (2.0). The tower has a roof (2.1) which is fitted with an air duct that has a built-in drip trap, and is supplied with warm air by means of a channel that opens sideways at the foot of the tower (2.5) which is fitted with a solar-thermocommutator (4.0) and a ventilator (4.1). (b) The liquid manure, dung and house sewage is fed continuously or discontinuously into the tower by means of a pressure pipe (2.1) which opens centrally above the pallet. (c) The discharge of liquid manure from the pallet (2.2) is effected through a drainpipe (3.1) set in the floor of the tower which is connected to an underground liquid manure tank (3.0) located outside the tower. This drainpipe is fitted with a filter to prevent larger pieces of refuse from flowing into the drain. (d) The liquid manure will then be pumped out of the tank (3.0) when the minimum filling mark has been reached, either continuously or discontinuously (3.3), and will then be squirted out by means of a sprayer in the upper part of the tower (2.3). (e) After completion of the composting process, which can be ascertained optically through the darkening and shrinking of the wheat straw which has been saturated with liquid manure, dung and house sewage, in the manure feed process and the manure sprayer can be stopped and the compost dried by means of air blasting to under 30% weight of water content. (f) The lattice box pallet (2.2) with the finished compost can then be removed from the tower and emptied over a storage area that is rainproof.