Municipal organic solid waste composting: development of a tele-monitoring and automation control system

T. Ahmadi¹*, C.A. Casas¹, N. Escobar² and Y.E. García¹

¹University of Cundinamarca, Faculty of Engineering, 18th Diagonal 20-29, Fusagasugá, Colombia
²University of Cundinamarca, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, 18th Diagonal 20-29, Fusagasugá, Colombia
*Correspondence: tahmadi@ucundinamarca.edu.co

Abstract:

The Organic Solid Waste (OSW) generation have experienced high growth in the last decades. Moreover, the treatment and management of them have become a priority in the environmental policy of many cities, due to the sanitary and environmental problems related to the OSW elimination. Between 2 and 3 metric tons per day of organic residues are generated in the local market square of Fusagasugá-Colombia, without having any transformation program or technological alternatives for their decomposition. This paper presents the design and implementation of an experimental reactor for composting that includes a measurement stage, signal conditioning, data acquisition (DAQ), and data storage, together with a control and telemetric supervision system through a Human-Machine Interface (HMI), which allows manipulation of some key variables of the composting process remotely via the Internet.

Key words:

A prototype reactor to compost agricultural wastes of Fusagasuga Municipality. Colombia

T. Ahmadi¹*, C.A. Casas Díaz¹, Y.E. García Vera¹ and N. Escobar Escobar²

¹Universidad de Cundinamarca, Facultad de Ingeniería, Diagonal 18 No. 20-29, Fusagasugá, Cundinamarca, Colombia
²Universidad de Cundinamarca, Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias, Diagonal 18 No. 20-29, Fusagasugá, Cundinamarca, Colombia
*Correspondence: tahmadi@ucundinamarca.edu.co

Abstract:

Crop and animal production generate a high level of organic waste that causes negative effects on the environment and communities. The use of composting processes can improve the quality of these biowastes. Additionally, the application of technologies such as telemetry and remote sensors, allows optimizing the transformation of organic matter in a more controlled and efficient way. The city of Fusagasugá is well known in agriculture. However, it lacks sustainable management of the organic waste system.
In this study, after a three-dimensional electromechanical design, a prototype reactor to compost agricultural wastes of Fusagasuga municipality will provide. The capacity of this prototype reactor is considered to be 20 litres. In order to control temperature and humidity of biowastes in different working conditions, it is used A PI controller with 3 temperature and a humidity sensors. With these sensors the compost materials temperature and humidity will remain at 65 °C and 55–60%. By using a special form of temperature sensor placement, the time to oxygenate the compost materials will be found. Furthermore, this system is integrated by a Human-Machine Interface (HMI), which allows the supervision and manipulation from a remote access user.

Key words:

composting, environment, sensors, telemetry