Solar Powered Solid Waste Compactor

With rapid increase in population of world, many problems have piled up to become a major issue. One of these issues is increasing amount of waste and its handling. According to a report of World Bank, with rapid increase in population, waste generation will expectedly increase to a level of 3.4 bil

Project Title

Solar Powered Solid Waste Compactor

Project Area of Specialization

Mechatronics Engineering

Project Summary

With rapid increase in population of world, many problems have piled up to become a major issue. One of these issues is increasing amount of waste and its handling. According to a report of World Bank, with rapid increase in population, waste generation will expectedly increase to a level of 3.4 billion of tons, from 2016 to 2050 (World-bank, 2019). If waste is not properly transported to landfill, it will overflow and will cause pollution and adverse diseases. Landfills containing electronic waste (TV, electronics chips, computers etc.) contain Arsenic, Mercury, Cadmium, Lead and such other metals which are very hazardous. Landfills also give off methane which is 20 times more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2 causing depletion of ozone layer and warming global temperature (Environment Victoria, 2013).

Pakistan produces approximately 31 million tons of municipal solid waste annually (Pakistan Waste Management, 2019) including 13,500 tons per day only from one of the largest city of Pakistan i.e. Karachi.(Export.Gov, 2019)

Handling such large amount of waste is only possible by compacting waste by using Compaction of waste which will reduce volume of waste up to 8 times. Therefore, problem of insufficient area for landfill can be easily solved in this way. Moreover, if waste is compacted in trash bins, then frequency of transportation will also be reduced along with reduction in fuel consumption and labor work and money will be saved being spent on these parameters. This project will help to reduce air pollution (as it will use solar energy which is eco-friendly and does not emit any harmful exhaust gasses like other fuels) will stop overflow of trash (which causes many harmful diseases and air pollution). Furthermore, it also reduces smell and littering (Flood Brother Disposal, 2019).

Machine will have capacity of 100 liters with rectangular shape. Waste compactor basically consists of solar plates, actuator, scissor lift mechanism, electronics and sensors. Solar plate will take energy from sunlight and store it in battery. This power will be provided to actuator which will move in to and fro manner along one axis. This momentum will be delivered to plunger through X-frame mechanism. Sensors will be mounted in the machine which will give the indication of full bin and in operation process. A door will be set from back end of machine to open and close manually from where compacted trash can be collected after complete compaction and will be available to send to landfills. Two push buttons will be mounted on the machine to make it work manually for start and stop of compaction process. This machine will help in carrying more waste in less time with less consumption of fuel and this project will lead its path towards human and economic welfare by reducing air pollution as well as cost for transportation.

Project Objectives

The objectives of our project are described as following:

• Study and comparison of different mechanisms and Selection of the most optimal one for the purpose to provide better output by applying less input from the source to conserve the energy issues, the better compaction force and automatic feeding by pneumatic or mechanical components.
• Selection of preferred materials and performing calculations for the loads, capacity, power requirement and geometry and applying them consecutively to obtain the best one for practical usage.
• Fabrication of the different machine parts and finally the machine and collecting the waste from the dumped sites or from surrounding areas
• Practical testing of the fabricated machine to check its performance and reliability.
• Conclusions and recommendations.

Project Implementation Method

Project implementation method will involve following mentioned steps:

• Project Start and Research Work: In this step, we will study and make comparison of various mechanisms and other aspect like cost, efficiency, its availability etc. and different related aspects of selection and formation of the components for
  the final fabrication. We have already completed this task.
• Data Collection and Design Selection of Model: After 1st step, we will move forward for data collection of model selected. Selection of appropriate mechanism and data collection related to selected model will be done in this step. We have completed this task.
• Calculation: The calculations regarding the force requirement for the compression of the waste using the plunger through the mechanical or hydraulic mechanism will be performed. These calculations for the geometry and force requirement will ultimately give us the estimation for the power requirement from the solar panel.
• Outdoor Work and Fabrication: In this step, we will purchase different components from market. The fabrication of machine needs the components which would bear the tensile and shear strength for the force of compression. After this, there will be final fabrication and assembling of purchased components to make compacting machine. This step is in progress.
• Monitoring of machine: In this step, we will perform technical and impact monitoring of machine on daily basis. This step is yet to do.
• Final Testing, Analysis and Results: In this step, we will perform different test like fatigue test, hardness test, torsional test etc. We will analyze machine on basis final testing and then compile results. This step is yet to do.
• Final Report: We will compiled all study related to our project in this step. This step is yet to do.

Benefits of the Project

The completion of this project will give following benefits;

• This project would let the landfills to store 7 to 8 times more compacted waste in the same place. So problem of insufficient landfill for waste will be solved by help of this project.
• Waste contain Arsenic, Mercury, Cadmium, Lead and other metals which are very dangerous which overflow sometimes if bin is filled fully. When waste will be compacted, Bin will surely hold more waste within it. So problem of overflowing will also be solved.
• When waste will be compacted to 7 to 8 times, bin will hold more waste within it. So, if normal bin fills in one day, the same compaction machine bin will be filled after 7 to 8 days. So, frequency of transportation will be reduced.
• Transportation require labor work and also fuel for carrying waste to landfill and it costs a lot. When frequency of transportation will be reduced, then cost being spent on transportation of waste and labor work will also be reduced. In this way, it will save cost.
• This project will help to reduce air pollution (as it will use solar energy which is eco-friendly and does not emit any harmful exhaust gasses like other fuels) and stops overflow (which causes many harmful diseases and air pollution). 
• This project promotes using renewable energy resources by using solar energy instead of using any other fuel (i.e. petrol, gas, diesel etc.)
• Maintenance cost of solar powered energy generation method is low and it operates silently. So, there will be no noise pollution.
• Compaction of waste also reduces smell and littering hence providing better air to breathe in. (Flood Brother Disposal, 2019).
• In a short note, it can be depicted that the completion of this project is significantly effective for the current scenarios of waste handling and economic conditions of Pakistan.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

We will design machine according the capacity requirement of the landfills locally available. The machine will give a designed prototype for the company but will also be able to work on small scale with our minimum capacity of 100 liters (0.1 m3) and will be designed with a cuboidal shape. The calculations of this 100 liters capacity will be performed for the cross sectional area and the length of the bin being made for the waste storage and compression. The calculations regarding the force requirement for the compression of the waste using the plunger through the mechanical or hydraulic mechanism will be performed. These calculations for the geometry and force requirement will ultimately give us the estimation for the power requirement from the solar panel which can be used by the motor to transfer it to the plunger for the compaction.

Solar Panel Output:
Daily Watt Hrs.= Solar Panel Watt * Average Hrs. of Sunlight * 0.75

Battery power:   Q = V?I

Applied force by plunger on waste: F = (P ? t)/d

Normal strength of bin plates: ? = ? ? E

Force required for link to operate: F = (W + Wa)/2tan?

Despite these calculations, the dimension for the solar plate to be used would also be considered according to the power requirement and size of bin.
After the calculations being done for geometry of bin, force for plunger and power requirement etc. the final fabrication of the machine would be taken under consideration. The fabrication of machine needs the components which would bear the tensile and shear strength for the force of compression. Our next target for the final fabrication would be purchasing the components from the market and the assembling them to make compacting machine and then testing it for the compaction.
Running Compactor machine will surely require an energy source. We will use solar energy to run Compacting machine. This way of running compacting waste is environment friendly, does not emit any harmful gases, free of diseases and promoting greenhouse effect. It also does not demand recurring fuel (Petrol, Diesel, Methane etc.) for its operation. So, there is no need to pay for fuel which makes this method economical.

Collectively this method of generating energy is more suitable for the current project. Therefore, for the current project, solar energy will be used as a power source of the trash compactor.

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

Manufacturing

Other Industries

Energy , Transportation , Health

Core Technology

Others

Other Technologies

Sustainable Development Goals

Good Health and Well-Being for People, Affordable and Clean Energy, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Life on Land

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com