  The critical behavior of the contact process in disordered and periodic
binary 2d-lattices is investigated numerically by means of Monte Carlo
simulations as well as via an analytical approximation and standard mean field
theory. Phase-separation lines calculated numerically are found to agree well
with analytical predictions around the homogeneous point. For the disordered
case, values of static scaling exponents obtained via quasi-stationary
simulations are found to change with disorder strength. In particular, the
finite-size scaling exponent of the density of infected sites approaches a
value consistent with the existence of an infinite-randomness fixed point as
conjectured before for the 2d disordered CP. At the same time, both dynamical
and static scaling exponents are found to coincide with the values established
for the homogeneous case thus confirming that the contact process in a
heterogeneous environment belongs to the directed percolation universality
class.

Statistical Mechanics