edge.rit.eduedge.rit.edu/edge/p18422/public/problem definition... · web viewthe shed was designed...

Multidisciplinary Senior DesignProject Readiness Package

Project Title: Black Soldier Fly Composting Habitat ImprovementsProject Number:(assigned by MSD) P18422

Primary Customer:(provide name, phone number, and email)

Sarah Brownell (DDM, [email protected]; 585-330-6434), Shwe Sin Win (GIS, [email protected]), Dr. Dawn Carter (BIO, [email protected], 585-475-5806), Dr. Brian Thorn (ISE, [email protected], 585-475-6166)

Sponsor(s):(provide name, phone number, email, and amount of support)

EPA P3 Award through ISE (Dr. Thorn is the approver), may need some MSD funds (will check how much was spent last year)

Preferred Start Term: Fall 2017

Faculty Champion:(provide name and email)

Sarah Brownell, Dr. Dawn Carter (BIO), Dr. Brian Thorn (ISE),

Other Support: Dr. Steve Weinstein, [email protected], chemical engineering, Dr. Tom Trabold (GIS), Enid Cardinal, RIT Sustainability Advisor

Project Guide:(assigned by MSD)

Prepared By Date

Received By Date

Project Information

* Overview:

RIT – Kate Gleason College of EngineeringMultidisciplinary Senior Design

Project Readiness PackageTemplate Revised Spring 2016

Almost half of all food produced for human consumption ends up being wasted. Much of this waste goes to landfills where it contributes to the problems of greenhouse gas production, landfill filling, and water contamination. The larva of the Black Soldier Fly (BSF, figure 1) are voracious eaters and are able to consume a variety of organic materials including vegetables, meat, oils, and manure. Therefore, they make great candidates for food and other organic waste recycling systems. The goal of this project is to optimize a pilot black soldier fly composting facility inside a 8’x10’ passive house style shed that will be built in early fall in the RIT community garden. The shed was designed by an RIT architecture student to meet Passive House Standards and construction training seminar will be held at RIT in early September. This project is sponsored by the EPA People, Prosperity and Planet Award and follows on the work of last year’s team P17422 project which developed a composter where more than half a million BSF larvae can be fed food waste from campus dining facilities.

Figure 1: Black Soldier Fly Life Stageshttp://theaquaponicsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/689177.jpg?w=150 https://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2011/10/black-soldier-fly-hamburger.png.400x300_q90_crop-smart.jpg https://directcompostsolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/BSF-care-card-2-inches.jpg

RIT has a goal of becoming carbon and waste neutral by 2030, but dealing with food wastes is a big challenge. Currently we send 1.3 tons/week of food wastes, mostly from Gracie’s, to a bio-digester off campus. However, shipping the wastes 20+ miles away by diesel truck has its own environmental implications and organic wastes from many other parts of campus are not recovered. Black solider fly larvae (BSFL) composting presents an alternative. It requires a smaller footprint than composting, produces useful by-products, and is a relatively fast process. The adult flies do not have mouths and do not feed; therefore they do not create a public health problem. The fattened larvae can be harvested for animal feed or production of biodiesel or methane and their wastes can be used as a fertilizer.

One drawback to using BSFL composting at RIT is that BSFL are not naturally suited to the Rochester climate. Therefore, the process will need to occur indoors--with some energy supplied in the form of heat and light for breeding. To better understand the economic and environmental viability of black soldier fly composting in cold climiates, a small insulated shed is being built on campus to house a black soldier fly colony. The shed will allow researchers to monitor energy requirements and emissions from BSFL composting.



Last year’s team developed this diagram to explain how we intend to use BSFL composting at RIT in the shed (figure 2).

Figure 2: Black Soldier Fly Comopsting System at RIT

The composter designed by last year’s MSD team (figure 3) was piloted in the RIT garden this summer, allowing the researchers to identify areas for improvement (these may be updated as summer progresses).

Figure 3: Isometric drawing and photograph’s of the composter.



The composter is made of HDPE and is designed so that food waste can be added from the top and leachate and BSFLfrass can be removed from the bottom using a gutter for the leachate and a set of two interchangeable screened drawers for the frass. Migrating larvae are directed by ramps to a PVC pipe that goes to a collection bag.

Some of the things that work well so far:● The support rails work well to help hold the drawers● The larvae don’t appear to be escaping● The HDPE material seems to be appropriate● The mesh material seems to be appropriate

Some issues with the current design include:● The drawer is hard to move when filled with dried bio digester leachate because the

leachate bunches up against the wall of the digester as the drawer is pulled through● The drawer is not effectively removing the bottom layer because of the bunching

problem. Researchers have to redistribute the compost 2-3 times while removing the drawer in order to be able to slide it. Some of the top compost ends up on the bottom of the composter.

● When removing the screen to let the compost fall out of the drawer, the compost at the edges of the screen is difficult to collect (falls off the sides of the cart). So far it has been easier to remove the whole drawer and dump it into a plastic tub.

● A ventilated/screened cover is needed to keep the system dark and prevent house flies from entering (less necessary in the shed)

● A lot of BSFL are needed to effectively use the composter. We currently do not have that many larvae. The current composter is not able to scale from start-up to full operation and it can not be easily operated with different numbers of larva and quantities of food.

● The total height of the composter may be high for use in the shed. In the garden, researchers stand on the cart to add material and observe larva. The current screen tent that we are using is not really tall enough.

● The larvae distribute themselves through out the composter instead of staying near the top (this may be due to us not adding enough food). We’ll update this later.

● We are not sure if the ramps work yet.● We have been feeding the larvae dog food and have not yet tried food wastes. Food

wastes may need to be ground before adding to the composter.● There is a need to reduce material costs and possibly weight of the composter.

The shed is a superinsulated structure with double walls, a vapor barrier, a door for workers and a south facing window for fly breeding (figure 4). The shed will contain a space heater to keep the temperature up in the winter and breeding lights in addition to any equipment needed to monitor and control the temperature, humidity and concentration of CO2 in the air. A small solar array will provide part of the power to operate the shed.





Comm. Garden

Tennis courts

Figure 4: Passive House Shed for BSF composting by Ria Purnama

Your MSD team is responsible for improving/re-designing both the environmental controls and monitoring system for the shed and the composter to manage the entire BSF lifecycle. The team is responsible for controlling the environmental conditions in the facility for ideal larvae composting and reproduction, reducing energy required for the composting process, tracking energy use and emissions, and re-designing the composter based on the field experiences above.

This project is sponsored by the US EPA and the full text of the EPA proposal and access to our dropbox of papers on BSFL will be provided to the team.

ResourcesThe team will be provided with the EPA P3 proposal and access to our Google and Dropbox folders containing BSF research papers. Team P17422 Edge site: http://edge.rit.edu/edge/P17422/public/Home Other useful info on BSFL rearing can be found on-line, including:http://jme.oxfordjournals.org/content/39/4/695 BSFL vs. Hamburger: https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-mozilla-002&hsimp=yhs-002&hspart=mozilla&p=BSFL+vs+hamburger#id=2&vid=c0338903809365b3d7a9131690a654b3&action=click

* Preliminary Customer Requirements (CR):

Category Customer Requirements

Size

Composter must fit in foot print of shed 10'x 12'Composter design and use space fits height of shedComposter fits through a standard door sizeReduce weight over current versionProvide a variable sized area up to a half a square meter of surface area for feeding.

Cost Reduce material costs of the composter over current version

Inputs

Allow operator to input food from 5 gallon buckets.Allow new eggs to be added to composterGrind food wastesAccept whole, chopped, ground, and wet food wastes

Larvae and fly Needs

Hold feeding larvaeAllow larvae burrowingAllow larvae to migrate for pupationProvide darkness



Provide welcoming pupation siteMinimize wandering larvae outside the desired pupation areaProvide light for matingMinimize fly escapes from shedMinimize house fly and other species contamination

Conditions

Allow aeration of composter to prevent anaerobic conditionsVentilate shed to maintain safe CO2 concentrations for workersMonitor temperature in the shedControl temperature in the shedMonitor humidity in the shedControl humidity in the shedMonitor energy inputs for all shed environmental control equipmentMonitor emissions in the exhaust from shedMonitor solar radiationMaintain food moisturePrevent heat/humidity losses from door openingPrevent unwanted species from entering

Outputs

Process 6kg food waste a dayAllow pupae to be removed to fly breeding areaAllow access liquids to drian and be collected for disposal or studyAllow removal of frass/food residue without disturbing the feeding larvaeReduce spillsFacilitate single operator in removing leachate and frass/food residue easily and without mess

* Preliminary Engineering Requirements (ER):(apologies for mixed units…)

● Composter operates in 10’x12’ shed floor space (considering also the sink and shelves)● Operates in height of composter (check with architect)● Width of composter, <32” idea, <36” marginal● Length of composter, <48” (to allow to enter a door and turn)● Weight, <current● Feeding area (surface footprint) variable from at least 0.25 – 0.5 m2

● Cost, < $850● Volume of food accepted per day, >5 gallon bucket● Weight of food accepted per day, >6 kg● Number of egg containers or number of egg clusters held in composter, >x (tbd)● Ideal particle size of ground food wastes, < x (tbd—may have bio students research this)● Max food particle size accepted in composter > 4”x4” ideal, > 2”x2” marginal● Number of larvae accommodated > 500,000● Available burrow depth for larvae > 7”



● Larvae able to migrate for pupation >5% of total population per day (28,000 per day for a population of 500,000), >3% marginal

● Brightness in composter, < x lumens● Larvae outside specified areas per day, <20● Other species discovered in 500 mL sample, (ask Dawn)● Anaerobic conditions in compost (Ask Dawn, need test…stinkiness?, H2S?)● Average CO2 concentration in shed, < 2500 ppm ideal, <5000 marginal (see

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/co2-comfort-level-d_1024.html )● Accuracy of CO2 measurements, at least +/-10%● Accuarcy of temperature measurements at least +/-3 oC● Accuracy of humidity measurements at least +/-10%● Frequency of data recording, at least every 10 minutes● Data storage capacity of at least 1 month● Average temperature in shed, 35 oC● Temperature variability in shed +/- 5oC● Mating light intensity > 200 μ mol m2s -1● Humidity in shed >70% RH● Changes in temperature and humidity when door opened and closed for feeding, <10%● Persistance of change in environmental conditions after feeding, <30 minutes● Moisture content of composting food waste is 75-85% ideal (see

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X17304294 )● Force required by the operator to remove frass/food residue (depends on design)● Time to remove frass/food residue, <10 min● Number of operators, 1 ideally● Max weight of things to be carried by operator, 30lbs● Leachate storage volume, >5 gallons● % of leachate and/or frass/food residue spilled on floor, <1%● Operator satisfaction on a scale of 1-10, >8

* Constraints:Complete build and most testing by March 2018Use existing shedFollow EPA P3 Grant requirementsMeet campus guidelines

† Budget Information:Working on this

* Intellectual Property:NA

Project Resources



† Required Resources (besides student staffing):Describe the resources necessary for successful project completion. When the resource is secured, the responsible person should initial and date to acknowledge that they have agreed to provide this support. We assume that all teams with ME/ISE students will have access to the ME Machine Shop and all teams with EE students will have access to the EE Senior Design Lab, so it is not necessary to list these. Limit this list to specialized expertise, space, equipment, and materials.

Faculty list individuals and their area of expertise (people who can provide specialized knowledge unique to your project, e.g., faculty you will need to consult for more than a basic technical question during office hours)

Initial/date

Sarah Brownell, r.Dr. WeinsteinEnvironment (e.g., a specific lab with specialized equipment/facilities, space for very large or oily/greasy projects, space for projects that generate airborne debris or hazardous gases, specific electrical requirements such as 3-phase power)

Initial/date

Shed in RIT garden, chemical engineering labEquipment (specific computing, test, measurement, or construction equipment that the team will need to borrow, e.g., CMM, SEM, )

Initial/date

Existing BSFL composter in RIT gardenMaterials (materials that will be consumed during the course of the project, e.g., test samples from customer, specialized raw material for construction, chemicals that must be purchased and stored)

Initial/date

Food wastes, Larvae

OtherInitial/date

† Anticipated Staffing By Discipline:Indicate the requested staffing for each discipline, along with a brief explanation of the associated activities. “Other” includes students from any department on campus besides those explicitly listed. For example, we have done projects with students from Industrial Design, Business, Software Engineering, Civil Engineering Technology, and Information Technology. If you have recruited students to work on this project (including student-initiated projects), include their names here.

Dept. # Req. Expected ActivitiesBME 1? Biosystem processes (mass, energy balance), computer based data

acquisition, understanding the larvaeCEEE 1 Could possibly be done by MEs: solar electric system with grid backup



for shed, circuit design, test, and debug for environmental sensors and controls, microcontroller for ventilation, temp and humidity control?

ISE 1 Sustainable engineering student with interest in renewable energy, passive house design and composting, statistical analysis of data, project mangagment, ergonomics, material selection and processing

ME 3 CAD, machining, stress analysis, HVAC, renewable energy systems, materials selection, statistics

Other



edge.rit.eduedge.rit.edu/edge/p18422/public/problem definition... · web viewthe shed was designed...

Documents