Carbon Agro turns the waste into a nutrient-rich compost in a 25 day process that the company’s scientists developed in field trials over the past three years in Indonesia, where the firm has installed two compost systems worth $10 million combined.
The projects entail installing a series of ten-by-eight metre concrete boxes designed to naturally aerate the compost as it is periodically turned and watered with the watery sludge from the mill. When ready, the compost is trucked back to the oil palm plantations using the same vehicles that bring in the fruit bunches.
Tests have shown that the compost from one plantation can replace 20 to 30 per cent of the chemical fertilisers that growers typically use for the same space, and can improve the soil health in the process...