As previous work proposed commercial expectations for soluble bio-organic substances (SBO) isolated from compost of urban food, gardening and park trimming residues as chemical auxiliaries, nine urban bio-wastes (BW) treated by aerobic and anaerobic digestion for 0-360 days were used to extract SBO and investigate source variability effects on product chemical composition and properties. The bio-wastes were collected over a 13732 km(2) area populated by 2.9 millions from 565 municipalities. The SBO were characterized by their content of different C types and functional groups and by their distribution coefficient (K(PEGW)) between polyethylene glycol and water. A significant linear correlation was found between K(PEGW) and the lipophilic/hydrophilic C ratio. The investigated SBO exhibited up to sixfold change of K(PEGW) demonstrating that BW available from densely populated urban areas are an interesting exploitable source of a wide variety of potential products for the chemical market.
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