ADVANCED ROTARY IN-VESSEL COMPOSTING SYSTEM FOR BIODEGRADABLE WASTE

Solid wastes are all the wastes arising from human and animal activities that are normally solid and that are discarded as useless or unwanted. The organic waste, especially the food waste is a large menace while we deal with the solid waste management. Composting is one of the method for the decomposition of organic waste. This project aims at developing a rotary in- vessel aerobic composter for the food waste decomposition in College of Engineering, Trivandrum. While aerobic composting is commonly used for disposing of food waste, the use of suitable bulking agents is crucial to achieve optimal results. College campus face significant demands for disposal of fallen leaves, which have substantial potential as bulking agents for aerobic composting. This study explored the performance of fallen leaves and compared it with saw dust as bulking agent in composting. The findings revealed that while both reactors successfully degraded kitchen waste, composting with leaf bulking showed superiority over saw dust bulking in several aspects. Leaf bulking resulted in a longer thermophilic period, higher maximum temperature, increased humification and better degradation efficiency. And the comparison study also showed reasonable NPK value with dried leaves as bulking agent. The project finally used the best experimental combination in the rotary in-vessel aerobic reactor for the food waste decomposition in the college campus.