Process for evaluating microbial-degradability of organic matters and apparatus therefor

A method for evaluating microbial-degradability of an organic matter, the method comprising the steps of:

• placing an organic matter as an evaluation subject together with a prescribed microbial source into a reaction column maintained constantly at a fixed temperature to effect decomposition of the organic matter in the reaction column by microorganisms contained in the prescribed microbial source under feeding of CO.sub.2 -free saturated water vapor into the reaction column and to measure the weight of carbon dioxide formed by the decomposition;
• placing a cellulose as a evaluation reference together with the same prescribed microbial source as described above into another reaction column maintained constantly at the same fixed temperature as described above to effect decomposition of the cellulose in the reaction column by the microorganisms contained in the prescribed microbial source under feeding of CO.sub.2 -free saturated water vapor into the reaction column and to measure the weight of carbon dioxide formed by the decomposition;
• and
• carrying out comparative discussion of these two measured values so as to evaluate degradability of the organic matter.