There are some equipment found in waste management facilities, which are fabricated based on required specifications and used to partially
digest organic food waste, that is, breakdown the food into simpler forms as done
in the body or by bacteria in soil, to form compost manure. The digest derived is cut
off and dried into peletes which are dark in coloration. The process is
anaerobic involving the use of bacteria and thus, methane gas is usually
produced as well. The retention time is usually 5 days.
Food Waste Composting Machine or Digester
A Food Waste Composting Machine or Digester is usually used in waste management facilities to facilitate this process. The food wastes are put
in buckets mobilized by a trailer which empties it's content into the machine.
The waste food is put into the homogeneous tank (like a stomach) to which is
attached a shredder. Then the shredder content is expelled into the digester (a
rotating drum) for partial digestion.
 |
| Food Waste Composting Machine (Olu-Tee) made in U.K by Avalon |
The locally fabricated Food Waste Digester works with the
same principle, except that while the composting machine is automated,
the digester is manually handled.
The locally fabricated Food
Waste Digester is estimated to be capable of digesting about 3 to 4 tonnes of
food waste while the Food Waste Composting Machine is estimated to be capable of
digesting up to 7 tonnes of food waste.
 |
| Food Waste Digester |
As stated earlier, the resources gotten from the composting process are usually compost manure and small quantity of methane gas.
Food Waste Drier
Another equipment that can be found in a waste management facility for handling food waste is the Food Waste Drier. This
equipment has various compartments each having slides (trays) onto which
segregated food wastes are emptied into and heated at both ends of the
equipment to about 80°C to 90°C. Low heat is
used to avoid the destruction of the organic waste matter. There is a blower to
dry the food matter. The dried food waste becomes a resource used as animal feed.
 |
| Food Waste Drier |
The
Olu-Tee (Olu Thompson) Waste Management Facility located in a secluded environment in Udu, Delta state. Nigeria, is a promising waste management facility
already equipped with these machines to handle food waste and convert them into
organic resources.
 |
| Olu-Tee Waste Management Laboratory (olutee-ng.com) |
The company
is also fully equipped as it has the following facilities:
A Muster Point
This is a spacious big room or hall where
all staffs are expected to congregate for their safety in case of any alarms
indicating danger such as fire outbreak, toxic gas outbreak, etc, to await
instruction from the safety officer or the management of the facility.
Containers
The
facility had various containers used for containment such as:
- Temporary storage tanks
- Cotton boxes - for storing
liquid wastes and transporting from the source.
- Plastic drillers.
Locally
Made Incinerators
There are 2
incinerators in the facility. The incinerators were locally fabricated to suit
the nation's kind of waste and well working. They are made of Aluminum covering
for better efficiency and insulation.
A Clinic
The
facility has a clinic for emergency. There was a nurse in the clinic. There
were wards for males and females. On the top floor was an induction room. There
was also a time table for the weekly operations and activities of the facility
on this floor.
A Laboratory
The facility's
main laboratory is used to find out the percentage composition of effluents,
the compost and feeds made, etc.
In
different rooms of the laboratory building were standard equipments such as:
- Gas
Chromatography - Mass Detector (GC-MS).
- Water
Distiller: For deionizing or distilling water.
- Centrifuge:
Used to separate immiscible liquids to different densities.
- Fume
Cupboard
- Hot
Plate and Stirer
- Atomic
Adsorption Spectrophotometer (AAS) device: for measuring heavy metals in
present in a sample.
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