Quinones-enhanced humification in food waste composting: a novel strategy for hazard mitigation and nitrogen retention

The harmless and high-value conversion of organic waste are the core problems to be solved by composting technology. This study introduced an innovative method of promoting targeted humification and nitrogen retention in composting by adding p-benzoquinone (PBQ), the composting without any additives was set as control group (CK). The results indicated that the addition of exogenous quinones led to a 30.1% increase in humic acid (HA) content during the heating and thermophilic phases of composting. Spectroscopic analyses confirmed that exogenous quinones form the core skeleton structure of amino-quinones in HA through composting biochemical reactions. This accelerated the transformation of quinones into recalcitrant HA in the early stages of composting, and reduced CO2 and NH3 by 8% and 78%, respectively. Redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed that the decrease in carbon and nitrogen losses primarily correlated with quinones enhancing HA formation and greater nitrogen incorporation into HA (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the compost treated with quinones demonstrated a decrease in phytotoxicity and earthworm mortality, alongside a significant increase in the relative abundance of actinobacteria, which are associated with the humification process. This research establishes and proposes that co-composting with quinones-containing waste is an effective approach for the sustainable recycling of hazardous solid waste.