Improving the composting process of a treatment facility via an Industry 4.0 monitoring and control solution: Performance and economic feasibility assessment

Abstract

The European Union has set ambitious targets for recycling and landfill disposal of urban waste by 2025 and 2035, respectively. Composting is considered one way to achieve these goals. This paper focuses on a case study of a compost industrial treatment facility to identify potential and economically feasible improvements for the process and the factory. Through a thorough analysis of the facility and its production process, a plant section suitable for reengineering intervention has been identified. A technological solution based on Industry 4.0 is proposed to facilitate the monitoring and control of the bio-oxidation phase. An economic and feasibility analysis of this investment has been carried out over a ten-year lifecycle, comparing it with the company's business plan. A hybrid simulation model has been implemented to simulate and evaluate the reengineered plant, revealing that the bio-oxidation phase can be shortened to an average of six days. This result suggests that the adoption of smart technologies to control these types of processes are desirable and should become a standard. The social and economic effects of this investment were also analyzed to evaluate how to reduce the fares keeping the investment still valuable for the community and the private entrepreneurs.

Keywords: Compost production; Simulink reliability modelling; Stochastic hybrid automaton; Sustainability; Urban waste management.