WASTE TO WEALTH J.S.Sudarsan*, Dr.A.Abdul Rahaman**,Mr .

Ajith kumar*** Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, SRM University, Kattankulathur-603 203, Tamil Nadu, India e-mail: sudarsanjss@yahoo.com
Solid Waste Management usually refers to managing of solid waste in different forms. Municipal Solid Waste is defined as refuse from house holds, hazardous solid waste from industrial and commercial establishment, and refuse from institutions, market waste, yard waste and street sweeping wastes. In this paper we have done a study on Kitchen waste management at our SRM University. SRM University, a vast campus with 38 blocks spread over 250 acres, housing the faculties of Engineering, Medicine & Health Sciences, Management and Science & Humanities - the SRM Medical College Hospital & Research Center and the SRM Hotel are also located here. Around five thousand students are studying in this University in different streams of medical, Engineering, Science and Humanities. Solid waste from kitchen consists of all biodegradable and non biodegradable wastes. These wastes are properly segregated and dumped in the waste dumping yard. The bio-degradable wastes mostly consists of large amount of food waste both vegetarian and non-vegetarian and major portion of the peels of the fruits and vegetables. As a first step the waste must be cut in to small pieces after segregation,then these wastes are taken in closed cylindrical containers and delivered into the composting chamber A vast campus housing the
faculties of Engineering, Medicine & Health Sciences, Management and Science & Humanities - the SRM Medical College Hospital & Research Center and the SRM Hotel are also located here. Chambers are

specially developed for this purpose. The size of the chamber is about (9x6x3=162cuft). About 20kg of solid waste is accommodated in one cubic feet area. Bacteria cultures are prepared and sprinkled over the food waste so that the reaction will start quickly. Constant stirring of food waste helped to disintegrate the clumps. In case the food waste forms the clumps anaerobic condition results and metabolic heat increases in turn produces foul smell. This foul smell indicates putrification of food waste instead of fermentation .Because of the putrification of food waste, worms emerge which results in the recruitment of other insects etc. To avoid such process constant stirring of the food waste by adding bacteria is required and the process of fermentation is continued. In such process it takes about 40 days to convert food waste from brown to black colour suggesting the conversion of organic material such as fat, protein, carbohydrates and vitamins in to carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous and potash. It will release inert gas during the process of fermentation and this gas is used for different puposes.The resultant of the food waste in to organic manure has been analyzed and the manure has also been applied as a nutritive value to the plants. The result of the study is presented with the details of the construction of bio compost yard.

Key words: Kitchen waste, bacteria cultures, Manure.

* Lecturer Department of Civil Engineering.SRM University (corresponding author) ** Visiting professor Department of Civil Engineering SRM University *** M.Tech Environmental Engineering Student,SRM University.

INTRODUCTION Agriculture is one of the major occupations in India, which is the life line basis for food production. About 80% of population is involved in this field. Agriculture produces huge organic waste. In this ever-changing world technical advancement, waste utilization becomes imperative. Numerous wastes from various agricultural fields pose huge pollution to the environment. These waste can be utilized for cattle feed, manure and compost production. For raising food production, soil fertility is a main factor, which can be raised by applying chemical fertilizers. But these fertilizers create great threat to environment. Hence using agricultural waste as it compost in place of chemical fertilizer can obtain good yield as well as prevent pollution. Huge waste are generated and it is dumped in the backyard and produces obnoxious smell and functions as breeding ground for insects particularly house flies and mosquitoes etc., further, the biological energy is also wasted. Hence converting this waste into compost is in need of the hour. To achieve quick composting scientists have been engaged in utilization of bacterial consortium for converting kitchen waste by composting. This project is an attempt in that direction. Conversion of kitchen waste into compost is the order of the day, as these are renewable in nature. Like, banana, one of the prominent crops in India, generates 7.77x106 tons of agro waste with 3.86x106 hectares under cultivation. Microbial conversion of an abundant supply of agricultural waste has become a subject of considerable interest as a renewable source of raw material for manure and composting sectors. Anaerobic bacterial consortiums are effective degraders of lingnocelluisoic complexes of agricultural wastes.

STUDY AREA Study area for carrying out this experimental study is our university hostel. In our University, there are around 5000 students who are staying in the hostel. For this study, we considered only the biodegradable waste from the hostel mess. . Normally hostel refuse consists of vegetables, fruit and vegetable peels unutilized food materials and all other kitchen refuse. SRM university hostel is located inside our university campus. Our university is Located near Chegalpat at Kanchipuram District, nearly 30kms away from Chennai city Tamil Nadu India. METHODOLOGY The common methodology we used, for carrying out this study is anaerobic in-vessel composting.

ANAEROBIC COMPOSTING In this matter, organic material is decomposed in the absence of atmospheric oxygen. Anaerobic bacteria, fungi and moulds bring about the decomposition of organic matter by a process of reduction. As in aerobic composting, the organism utilizes the nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients in developing self protoplasm, but reduces the organic nitrogen to organic acids and ammonia. The carbon from the organic compounds which is not utilized in the self protein is liberated mainly in the form of methane. A small portion of carbon may be released as carbon-di-oxide. Since aerobic destruction of organic matter is a reduction process the final product, humus is subject to some aerobic oxidation, and then put on the soil. This oxidation takes place rapidly. Left to it, any organic matter will decompose by inefficient and for the decomposition to be completed. It may take a few months or even a year. IN-VESSEL SYSTEM In this system, the wastes are retained in a closed vessel and the composting process is carried out in the closed vessel type unit. The compost is retained within such sort of vessel and the environmental and human impacts can therefore be tightly controlled and a huge quantity of waste can be handled. There are opportunities for strict monitoring. The thermal properties of the systems generally ensure rapid and sustained heating. Air delivery is well controlled. Systems are generally scalable. In-Vessel solutions are relatively capital intensive and total processing cost reflect this, but they offer the most comprehensive control and containment option. Based on this concept, a prototype model has been developed, to carry out the experimental study of converting the kitchen waste in to manure. The prototype model consists of a small vertical cylinder like setup made of steel which is having one inlet for sending the bio degradable solid waste and there will be one outlet at the bottom through which the treated waste sludge will be released out And in the opposite side of the inlet pipe, there will be two openings, through one opening, the gas will be released and it is controlled by pressure guages, and there will be another opening through which the slurry is injected. The prototype model which we used for this experimental study is shown in fig.1 and 2. We are planning to implement this prototype model in a large scale in our university campus by using the following methodology. The prototype model will be loaded with biodung (leaves kitchen refuse and peels of vegetables and fruits fermented with water in enclosed space is called biodung). Garden waste can also be added to the mixture in an anaerobic atmosphere to create hydrocarbon methane along with organic fertilizer.pH is maintained above 7.01 to 7.55. The maximum observed temperature inside the digester has been 41 to 43c raw sewage along with liquor ammonia is added to maintain pH level. Laboratory result obtained by C.R Doss et.al ., proved that the gas produced by using two litre of raw sewage mixed with 1.50 Gms of kitchen garbage with 50gms of biodung gave 6.75 liters of biogas in 20 days. The temperature of the bath in which the experiment is conducted is maintained at 35c.The gas burned with blue flame upon ignition, signifying methane.

Figure: 1

Figure: 2

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION By using the above prototype model, 50Kg of minimum biodegradable wastes from kitchen has been treated. We can able observe the changes after one month and the characteristics of the sludge produced by the degradation of this waste was analyzed periodically for 1 month. From this study, we inferred that the sludge which is produced by this degradation which is having good humus value with sufficient NPK content and the average result of the 60 samples are given below. Bio-compost Food waste Nitrogen as N Phosphorus as P Potassium as K Iron as Fe Zinc as Zn Magnesium as Mg Manganese as Mn Boran as B Calcium as Ca NATURE AND VALUE OF FINISHED COMPOST We can able to produce finished compost which may be designated by the general name called Humus. In general humus is characterized by the following features, 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. It is a dark brown to black in colour. It is practically insoluble in water, although a part of it may go into colloidal suspension in pure water. It contains a larger amount of carbon than do plants, animals and microbial bodies. It contains considerable nitrogen contents about 3% to 6%. In certain cases it may be 0.5 to 0.8%. It contains the elements carbon and nitrogen in proportions which are close to 10:1 Humus is not in a static, rather in a dynamic condition. Humus serves as a source of energy for the development of various groups of microorganisms and it gives off a continuous stream of carbon-di-oxide and ammonia. Actual results in % 2.02 0.69 1.11 0.90 0.46 0.05 0.01 Not detected 1.36

By comparing the results with the above mentioned points, it is clear that the sludge produced from the process of in-vessel anaerobic composting having sufficient humus and it can be used as manure. We also confirmed the production of inert gas through the outlet provided in the upper most portion of the container with the help of pressure gauge. From the smell inferred through the outlet clearly indicates it is a mixture of methane and other inert gases which can be used for domestic purposes. As this experiment was carried out in a prototype form, we are unable to produce large amount of gas, but if it is implemented in a large scale, we will be able to produce large amount of gas.

CONCLUSION At this juncture of heavy increase in crude oil price and scarcity in availing LPG cylinders, the above mentioned process would be one of the best methodologies in solving the energy crisis and also to protect the Environment. Kitchen waste along with sewage when utilized can bring the following benefits: (1) It ushers Zero garbage Zone in community living. (2) It enables recovery of energy (Bio-Gas). (3) It provides rich manure (4) It also provides income by means of selling the humus as organic manure. Bio-Gas technology is related to Public health, employment generation, Energy production & sanitation. If confirmed with storage technology it can be a great boon for mankind. REFERENCE: 1.J.S.Sudarsan paper on Bio gasification of natural fuels Proceedings of National workshop on recent trends in pollution control and Environmental conservation ENVIRON-TECH 2K4 JULY 15& 16 2004 at Bannari Amman Institute of Technology sathyamangalam Tamil Nadu India. 2. John Fry, Practical Building of Methane Power Plants (1974), Chapel river press, England. 3. Metcalf and Eddy, Waste Water Engineering (1979). Tata McGraw Hill. 4. C.R Das and S.D Ghatnekar (1980), Replacement of cow dung by fermentation of Aquatic & Terrestrial Plants for use as Fuel, Fertilizer and Biogas Plant Feed, TERI Documentation Notes, Private Communication from TERI. 5. Bio gas plant construction guidelines published by Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. 6. Practical hand book for bio gas managers Published by regional centre for bio gas development IIT KARAGPHUR. 7. Methane digesters for fuel gas and fertilizers with complete instructions of two working models by L.John fray. 8. Bio-gas technology by K.C.KHANDELWAL Tata McGraw Hill publications. 9. Solid and liquid waste management in rural areas a technical notes published by ministry of rural development in association with UNICEF.