Japanese tech to turn garbage into compost in 2 hours

In the next four days, Koramangala's garbage will be turned into compost that can be used in the locality .Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and a private company have installed a machine at the Koramangala garbage segregation unit near Jyoti Nivas College. The machine, worth Rs.3.5 crore, can convert four tonnes of organic waste into compost in one-and-a-half hours.
On Friday , the Japanese bio-engineering compost machine was fermenting 200 kg of organic waste. It works as an aerobic digester and has zero discharge, which means there's no smell or effluents from the process.
Vijay Kumar, technical support operator from JERS Environment Technologies, the company that brought the machine to Bengaluru, said: “It can convert four tonnes of waste into fertiliser in 10 cycles, treating 200 kg of waste at a time. About 70% of the waste is converted into fertiliser and the rest can be further treated to extract more fertiliser or be used as refuse derived fuel (RFD). This RFD, when used as fuel, would contain fewer toxins and emit lesser pollutants.“
The machine needs 210 KW of power to process four tonnes of waste and about 10 litres of water to process 200 kg. About 35 kg of compost is generated from 200 kg of waste.
The aerobic chamber works in two phases -fermentation and drying. The time taken to compost waste depends on the moisture content of the garbage.While the machine is capable of treating waste with 80% moisture content, it retains 18% to 20% of moisture content in the output.
“Similar machines have been already set up in Singapore, Philippines and Canada. This is the first one we are setting up in India and hope to install more across the country after a successful trial in Bengaluru,“ Vijay Kumar said.
Anil Chinniah, secretary of the Residents' Welfare Association in Koramangala 3rd Block, said: “We have a waste composting site in our locality put up by the residents of Koramangala 3rd Block. Garbage turns to compost naturally over three months but this machine does it in a few hours. We have to keep in mind the power and water consumption of the machine, transportation cost for carrying garbage to the segregation unit, labour charges and so on. If everything is feasible, the machine can be used across the state.“