Analysis of the effect of waste’s particle size variations on biodrying method

Abstract

The use of municipal solid waste as energy source can be a solution for Indonesia’s increasing energy demand. However, its high moisture content limits the use of solid waste as energy. Biodrying is a method of lowering wastes’ moisture content using biological process. This study investigated the effect of wastes’ particle size variations on biodrying method. The experiment was performed on 3 lab-scale reactors with the same specifications. Organic wastes with the composition of 50% vegetable wastes and 50% garden wastes were used as substrates. The feedstock was manually shredded into 3 size variations, which were 10 – 40 mm, 50 – 80 mm, and 100 – 300 mm. The experiment lasted for 21 days. After 21 days, it was shown that the waste with the size of 100 – 300 mm has the lowest moisture content, which is 50.99%, and the volatile solids content is still 74.3% TS. This may be caused by the higher free air space of the reactor with the bigger sized substrate.