Advantages and Challenges of Composting Reactors for Household Use: Smart Reactor Concept

Abstract

In the European Union, 88 Mt of food waste is generated annually, accounting for 6% of total EU greenhouse gas emissions. To reduce the amount of bio-waste going into the landfills, the composting of bio-waste at a household level must be facilitated. Traditional composting devices for garden and household biological waste solely rely on natural processes and do not hold online process control features or require energy input. This study describes a design and construction of a smart composting reactor for improved composting process control and compares the developed system with other laboratory-scale reactors and commercial devices available for this purpose. The Alternative Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) multi-criteria analysis method were used to assess the importance of various parameters and devices. The results showed good thermal insulation by reducing thermal transmittance from 1.87 W/m²K to 1.27 W/m²K, the effective sensor system performance of the constructed system, providing continuous data logging of temperature, moisture, and gas concentration levels. The system demonstrated 58% proximity to the ideal solution.