Twelfth International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses

Abstract

As a signatory member of the Paris Agreement, Mauritius has committed itself to mitigate climate change by decreasing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Among the major contributing sectors, the waste management sector accounts for 19% of greenhouse gases produced by the island, behind the energy sector which contributes about 77%. Though the latter warrants much effort to reduce its contributing GHG emissions, the waste management sector also requires significant mitigating measures to reduce its impact. The main greenhouse gas produced from the waste sector is methane since currently most of the waste generated on the island is disposed in a landfill. Among the different alternate waste management scenarios proposed, composting of organic waste is one of the best strategies to achieve carbon reductions in the sector. However, this target can only be achieved if the composting process is properly controlled. Objectively, an inducive distributed computational model is developed and presented in this paper, which analyses the set of variation parameters to achieve greatest reduction in methane through optimal composting. The composting matrix was modelled as a two-phase porous medium with mass degradation occurring in the solid phase. Mass balance equations for each phase were derived and were coupled with heat transport equations and reaction kinetics equations. The optimal set of parameters for efficient composting of yard waste and vegetable waste were determined using the model. The simulations demonstrated that bulking of vegetable waste prior to composting is required to prevent production of methane.

Presenters

Chandradeo Bokhoree
Associate Professor, Department of Environment, Science and Social Sustainability, University of Technology, Mauritius, Mauritius

Preeya Ramasamy Coolen

Gholam Jamnejad

Toshima Makoondlall-Chadee