Abdul Sayeed

Municipal solid waste contains a high percentage of organic waste, and when it is not disposed of, it becomes a threat to the environment by contaminating the air, water, and soil. Composting is one of the recovery techniques in which the end product of waste eventually contributes to the agriculture industry, reducing the harmful effects on the environment. Composting municipal solid waste is a clean and effective technique for waste disposal. The mechanized composting process is carried out by several methods, like the windrow method or the rotary drum method. However, large-scale composting processes involve energy consumption and labor costs for waste preparation and handling. This increases the market cost of compost. Hence, an energy-efficient composting technique with minimum environmental impact is needed. This research work aims to analyze the performance of an energy-efficient spouted bed technique for aerobic composting of municipal solid waste for the first time using spouted bed technology with sand as the bed material. Spouted bed composting handles the waste using a pneumatic method with minimum power consumption in comparison to conventional mechanical methods with windrow processes or rotary composting machines. The experimental procedure involves a test run of waste along with bed material and the collection of temperature variations, pH variations, moisture variations, and volatile matter content during the progression of the composting process. The results of this experimental study on a single batch of waste are then used to analyze the quality of the compost generated and compare it with existing results. Specific energy consumption for the process was less than 800 kJ/ton of raw waste input, which is much less than the energy used for conventional composting techniques. pH, volatile content, moisture, and temperature measurements indicated agreement with the established parameters of the composting process.

The effect of heat pipe thermosiphon in reducing the operating temperature of a photovoltaic panel has been analyzed theoretically and experimentally in this paper. Copper heat pipe thermosiphon with acetone as a working fluid was used. The theoretical study involved a heat balance analysis of the panel with cylindrical heat pipe with surface contact with the panel bottom. The experimental study involved recording temperature variations, with and without a heat pipe, which had very good agreement with the theoretical results of 2.61%. Additionally, the optimum quantity of acetone was 50 mL, with a maximum reduction in panel temperature of 10 °C.