Hitachi, Ltd.

Setuo Saitou

Kenji Baba

Masahiko Ishida

Masaru Nanba

Masako Ueda

An agitating unit is provided in an upright fermenting reactor for purposes of carrying garbage from a lower portion toward an upper portion of the fermenting reactor. The horizontal distance between the agitator unit, or a spiral blade thereof, and an inner wall surface of the fermenting reactor is made larger in proportion to the axial position of the agitator unit toward the upper portion of the fermenting reactor. On the other hand, an opening between the spiral blade and its drive shaft may made larger in proportion to the axial position of the agitator unit toward the upper portion of the fermenting reactor. With such an arrangement, a flow from a lower portion toward the upper portion and a flow from the upper portion toward the lower portion are simultaneously formed. Due to the ascending flow and the descending flow, the garbage and the compost in the fermenting reactor can be easily mixed with each other and the decomposition of the garbage can speeded up, so that it is possible to carry out a continuous fermentation operation.

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Hitachi, Japan

Setuo Saitou