Optimal Design of Box Composting Plant; A Case Study Of Pakistan

Abstract

In this research, a feasible design framework has been developed in order to design a box composting facility. Box composting technique is potentially a sustainable method to deal with solid waste management issues. Three different existing composting facilities in the different provinces of Pakistan have been studied to investigate the duration of composting under different weather conditions and therefore baseline durations for composting against the varying climate of different regions in Pakistan have been established. The data validated that the duration of the composting decreases with the increase in temperature. Moreover, a design framework that incorporates the weather conditions, as well as the density of waste, has been presented to calculate the sizes of composting and maturing boxes. A numerical design example has been successfully solved by assuming the data which proved the feasibility of the developed framework to design the compost facility as per any given requirements.