Easy Compost - bioreactor for fast and low cost treatment for organic waste

Abstract

The Brazilian population generates approximately 71 million tons of urban waste per year, 50% of which is composed of organic waste (Brazil, 2019). Only 0.8% of the collected organic waste is composted (SNIS, 2018). According to the National Solid Waste Policy, the processes that promote the transformation of waste must be encouraged as a way of promoting soil conservation and contributions to landfill longevity. The organic composting mitigates Climate Change, helps on carbon capture and storage, reduces greenhouse gases from transportation and landfills etc. The interest in organic composting in practically seen in all major sectors that handle food, such as supermarket, shopping, sports club, bar and restaurant, industry, hotel, etc. This could be seen in the 100 interviews conducted during PIPE Empreendedor, in Eccaplan's commercial actions and in the Support Letters, attached to the project. Eccaplan seeks Support Letters from different sectors, to demonstrate the wide potential market, and with companies that are references at their sectors, such as Carrefour, the largest supermarket chain in Brazil, Pinheiros Club, one of the main clubs in Brazil, Tenco Group, with 16 shopping centers etc. The Easy Compost project aims to develop an efficient and accelerated on-site composting system, promoting cost reduction with waste collection, transportation and disposal services, in addition to the intrinsic benefits of the process. The bioreactor will use enzymes/microorganism, an attractive design and connected to the internet, using IoT (Internet of Things) technology. and gamefication. Currently, there are commercially available composting equipment and techniques, but these do not meet most market demands, either due to the high cost or long process time and operational difficulties, which represents a barrier to the adoption of these solutions.The development of the bioreactor for organic waste consists of 4 technological and scientific fronts. The first and main differential will be Biotechnology, where the most appropriate enzymes and/or microorganisms of interest to the process will be investigated, identified, extracted and purified. To achieve the best results, this topic will be developed together with Dr. Adriana Parada, Dr. Marcio Chiba and Dr. Matheus Ciprian, from the Agronomic Institute of Campinas (IAC), Prof. Ednilson Viana, from EACH / USP, Dr. Paula Maria Elbl, company Bio In Food and CPQBA / Unicamp. The second topic will be Design, Mechanical Conception, Automation and Technical Specification of the equipment, which was being carried out with Senai, through the Senai Innovation Notice (2019-2020).The equipment IoT technology and gamification, will allow the remote monitoring of process parameters of the equipment and greater possibility of interaction and user engagement. For the IoT system, sensors will be used for data collection (temperature, load cell, humidity and rotation), and will be supported by Prof. Dr. Frank Behrens, from PUC Campinas. For the gamification part, user experience (UX) concepts will be applied and will feature challenges and scores, promoting continuous improvement and engagement. In the last topic, Market Tests, it will be carried out on large waste generators, such as Pinheiros Club, Itaqua Garden Shopping and Leroy Merlin, which are Eccaplan customers. The main expected impacts are: cost reduction with the disposal of organic waste; ease in the composting process; greater user engagement, with the most attractive design and embedded technologies; faster, odorless and better quality process; reducing food waste and improving efficiency by measuring the amount of organic waste generated and composted; and the reduction of the environmental impact and social cost, sending less waste to landfills. (AU)