A process and apparatus for producing compost having a high nutrient value from a mixture of animal manure and sawdust. The composter has two parallel shafts with radially projecting fingers which, when the shafts are rotated, slowly and gently churn and agitate the mixture in the composting chamber while air is directed therethrough at a predetermined low rate. When the composting action is completed the compost is promptly dried and packaged in moisture impervious containers.

A process for dewartering solid matter containing bound or unbound water comprises mixing the solid matter with an amount of a composition having an inverse critical solution point in a two-phase system with water. The amount of the composition used must be sufficient for substantially all of the bound or unbound water in the solid matter to be completely miscible in a single phase in the composition at or below a first predetermined temperature. The temperature of the mixture is then adjusted to or below the predetermined temperature. The mixture is then mechanically separated, as by filtering, into a solid fraction containing the solid matter and a liquid fraction containing the composition and substantially all of the water. The liquid fraction is separated into water and the composition by raising the temperature of the liquid fraction to above the determined temperature, at which temperature the liquid fraction separates into two liquid phases. The composition phase is then decanted from the water phase, after which the composition phase can be recycled for dewatering additional solid matter. The preferred compositions are those secondary or tertiary amines, preferably aliphatic, which exhibit an inverse critical solution point in a two-phase system with water. Mixtures of these amines can be used. Most preferred of these secondary and tertiary amines are those having the formula ##EQU1## wherein, R.sub.1 can be hydrogen or alkyl, R.sub.2 and R.sub.3 can be alkyl radicals having one to six carbon atoms or alkenyl radicals having two to six carbon atoms, the total number of carbon atoms in the amine molecule being in the range of from three to seven, inclusive. An exemplary and preferred amine of this class is triethylamine. The solid matter to which this method is applicable includes a wide variety of materials including fecal matter (poultry feces and treated sewage sludge), other sludges (flocculant metal processing wastes), animal protein (egg white, whole eggs, whole fish, fish wastes, shellfish and shrimp wastes, and whole milk), and plant protein (spent brewer's yeast, and green plants).

A method of animal waste treatment which provides the introduction of a solid material in the animal waste, having the following characteristics; a solid geometric shape, a solid which floats in the animal waste, a solid which is biodegradable, a solid which includes at least resins with formaldehyde and ferrous sulfate.

A method of preparing a dried fertilizer composition from poultry manure, minimizing decomposition and degradation of organic nitrogen, to achieve a total nitrogen content of about 3 to about 7 percent by weight.

A process for the chemical treatment of organic waste materials contaminated with a pathogenic microorganism, such as raw sewage, sewage sludge and other organic waste products, and to the treated organic waste material so obtained, which process comprises: prereacting the organic waste material with a water-soluble methylol compound subject to condensation, such as a methylolurea compound, under alkaline pH conditions; and, thereafter, condensing the methylol compound by establishing an acid pH condition to form a solid waste product comprising a condensation polymer containing methylene bridges and a sterile solid waste material.