Continuous thermophilic composting process using heating lamps controlled by a microcontroller

Abstract

The natural composting process takes a long time because it goes through four phases of temperature levels. One of them is the thermophilic phase, where the largest rate of organic degradation occurs. The purpose of this study is to accelerate the composting process through temperature control. It was carried out using the Continuous Thermophilic Composting (CTC) method. The heating system was designed to provide the thermophilic temperature in the range of 50 - 65 °C. Arduino microcontroller was used to control the process temperature in real time. Several experiments were carried out to obtain the best design. In the first experiment, acrylic was used as the heating system wall with a 100 W incandescent lamp and a fan. The highest composting temperature produced was 38 °C on the 7th day. In the second experiment, two 100 W incandescent lamps were used to increase heat generation, and the highest composting process temperature was 41 °C. In the third experiment, 0.2 mm steel wall was used with two 100 W incandescent lamps and two fans, and the temperature of the composting process reached the thermophilic phase, namely 61°C on the 8th day.