University of Kentucky CASE STUDY

The UK Horticulture Research Farm (South Farm), originally part of the Waveland Estate settled by Daniel Boone's family in the early 1800s, is a 100-acre farm that was originally purchased as 217 acres in 1956. In addition to research on fruit and vegetable, greenhouse and nursery, biofuels, entomology, plant pathology and related crop sciences, UK-HRF hosts the UK-CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) production unit.

The University of Kentucky spent multiple years evaluating potential on-site composting systems for campus food waste and agricultural residuals from the farm. A primary requirement included the ability to drive a dump truck or tractor directly into the system to load or unload compost feedstocks. They also wanted outstanding odor control, fast efficient processing and advanced process control.

One of the unique qualities of the Site Built Earth Flow platform is the accessibility to the composting process, whereas many of the alternative technologies represent more of an enclosed box/container which limits access to the composting process. This advantage of GMT’s Site Built Earth Flow was particularly important to the University of Kentucky for this scale of composting.

GMT designed a unique loading area compatible with their packer truck to dump the food scraps into the load end of the vessel, which they will then push into the vessel with a skid steer. Thanks to the custom site design support services from GMT, they were able to get an efficient composting system that meets their needs, including the entire process being under an enclosed roofed space with great accessibility for equipment and vehicles. The enclosed process keeps rain and weather from impacting the composting process, while also enabling outstanding odor control.