An In-Depth Look at Our Process, Part 3

Previously I went over our second step which is all about creating compost from organic materials.  The compost is not yet ready to be used as soil, thus we need our third step.

Step Number Three

This step will be preformed by our wonderful worms.  Namely, the E. fetida species, also known as the redworm or red wiggler.  This species of worm dwells above the soil and can consume about 1/2 of a pound a day (1).  While this may sound like very little, we are going to be getting at least a thousand worms, just imagine how much they all can recycle!

The face of a hero.

What we're doing here is called "vermicomposting."  This means we will be using worms to help us out to make healthy soil!  The word itself comes from the Latin word for worms, vermes, combined with composting (2).  The literal translation would be "Worm Composting," which is exactly what we will be doing.  These worms, in combination with other microorganisms that naturally occur in soil, break down the material even further than normal composting would.  Basically, they eat and then pass the waste, and that waste is full of nutrients for plants.

An In-Depth Look at Our Process, Part 2

Previously I went over our first step which is all about creating energy from used oil.  This energy is used to power the machine for our second step, which also uses cafeteria waste.

Step Number Two

This step is 100% powered from the energy the VegaWatt extracts from the cooking oil.  Other than this, we are going to be using mulch (brand as of yet unknown,) and organic waste from the cafeteria.  In other words, we are going to be using leftover, unwanted or rotting fruits and vegetables.  According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, approximately one third of the food produced in the world is thrown away.  (1)  In the US alone, this causes a loss of over $680 billion.  (1)  Fruits and vegetables make up 50% of these numbers.  (1)  This is a lot of waste and puts a strain on our environment, as most of it ends up in a landfill where it cannot properly decompose and return to the earth.

This graph shows just how much food is wasted, and we can see that North America is in the lead. (1)
Via The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

What are we going to do with all this trash?  Enter the Rocket Composter, courtesy of Tiny Planet.

This is our Rocket Composter, right here at BCC.
Picture by Mallory Errichetti

This machine's origins can be traced all the way back to the 1990s, when a man by the name of John Webb decided there must be a faster way to get nutritious compost for his plants.  However, it wasn't until about 2001 while working with his son, Simon Webb, that the first Rocket Composter, (which was then referred to as the "Webb Composter,") was invented.  The new and improved device gave people a way to dispose of their food waste in a clean and efficient way.  The machine uses very little energy and doesn't require much other than to be turned on and fed waste and water, it does the rest all itself.

This is where the VegaWatt will be connected.
Picture By Mallory

So, how does this machine work?  To understand this, we have to look at how regular composting works.  Composting is when a mixture of water, oxygen, food waste, manure and soil is mixed together and turned over many days in order to create what looks like dirt, but what is actually a nutrient rich mixture full of nitrogen, phosphorus and other elements and chemicals that help plants thrive.  This happens because thousands of naturally occurring bacteria and micro-organisms (such as fungi or mites) break down the waste.  The bacteria do this via a process called aerobic respiration, which means they require fresh air to continue surviving.  (This is why the compost pile has to be turned daily.)  This process gives off tons of heat, and can even reach 68 C)

Normally, one would have to carefully nurture their compost pile, being sure to turn it, water it, and keep its ecosystem in check.  It can take weeks or months to break the materials down into a usable substance.  However, the Rocket Composter speeds up this process to take only 14 days.

The Rocket keeps the compost pile in optimal conditions.  It does this by constantly breaking apart and turning the materials, keeping the moisture levels high enough to water the bacteria, and temperatures hot enough to facilitate bacteria growth and consumption.  As the compost moves through the process, it is gradually brought to dryer and cooler conditions in order to make it fully ready to be used as fertilizer after the 14 day period.  The machine can be constantly loaded with new waste which will be added to the process efficiently.

Why Compost?

According to a three-year study in Vietnam via the Science of the Total Environment journal, adding compost to soil has a wide range of benefits to both the plant life and the surrounding environment.    (2)  Not only does it prevent loss of water to plants such as maize (Z. mays) by allowing their roots to spread deeper and holding more moisture, it also helps to prevent erosion.  (2)  By doing this, it can end up reducing the amount of times drinking water is effected by fertilizer.  (2)

(Unfortunately this compost alone is not usable soil, but rather fertilizer that can be mixed into the soil.  The third step is what turns it into actual soil, which will be covered tomorrow.)

Me with The Rocket
Picture by Mallory

An In-Depth Look at Our Process, Part 1

In a previous post I listed the three steps in our program, and here I will go in much more detail as to how the steps work, what our tools are, why they were invented, and what exactly composting even is.

Step Number One

Our first step requires used cooking oil.  This oil is going to be generously supplied by the Bergen Cafeteria here on campus.  This oil is used often in kitchens as it can boil as hot as 220 C, while water maxes out at 100 C.  Oil also adds flavour to foods like french fries and chicken fingers, which are often sold at our cafeteria.  After the oil is used for food, it is often thrown away as it becomes full of particles of the food it was used to cook and becomes unclean.  There are over 16,000 students at Bergen, if all of them wanted fries for lunch, we would end up throwing away almost 100 liters of used oil at the end of the day.

These look disgusting, but are they useful?
Via Northwest VT Solid Waste Management District

This cooking oil, rather than being thrown away and potentially polluting the environment, can be used in a way that can end up helping the environment rather than damaging it.

Enter an invention dubbed "The VegaWatt."  This huge machine was invented by a man named James Peret, who noticed how restaurants paid about 100 dollars a month for companies to haul away their used oil in order for it to be properly disposed.  Peret decided that he had a great idea to both make money and reduce waste: turn all that oil into an energy source.

The CEO and founder of Owl Power Company, James Peret.
Picture via his Twitter

Due to VegaWatt still having a pending patent, the specifics of the process is a closely guarded secret, other than the fact that it has a four step process of sterilization and filtering.  However, in an interview with NPR radio, Peret gives a summery of how it works, "[The VegaWatt] filters out all of the food crumbs... ...It heats it up to a point where the engine, which is a standard diesel engine or an industrial diesel engine, can utilize the oil.  [The] diesel engine turns a generator head, which produces electricity..."

A simple diagram showing the process
Via Popular Science

Though originally designed specifically for use in restaurants to reduce their electricity and hot water bills, we will be using it to power our second step in our process.
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Today Professor Araya and I (Mallory,) took a look at the VegaWatt outside.  It is a large machine that is not quite ready to be used yet, but I could tell that it was quite complex.  There is a pipe installed in the wall that leads to a vat where the cooking staff with dump their used oil, and on the other side is where our second machine will be connected in order to give it power.  The place where the staff will dump the oil is located up the hill from the VegaWatt itself.

This is our VegaWatt, the pipe on the right is where the oil will be dumped in.
Picture taken by Mallory

Here is the drum that the oil will be dumped into.

This will be connected to a pipe

Eventually this pipe will be connected to the piece shown above, the pipe leads to the VegaWatt.

Purpose

The purpose of this blog is to introduce, document, and log any and all information that will be potentially procured by this project.

Project Name:  3-Step Organic compost

Project Mentor

Professor Linda Araya - Professor of General Biology. I am interested in conservation and anything that can reduce waste including organic matter that is often thrown into landfill. My interests include computational evolutionary biology, ecology, reptiles, and living by the “5 R’s” (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rot). One of the goals of this project is to use our system to maximize the nutritional value of our compost. Any students interested in participating in this research are highly encouraged to contact us!

Project Members 

Mallory Errichetti - Student, Bio major.  I have a very big interest in the environment and animals and would love to do research on a project that may make a difference, however small.  Starting off by helping to eliminate food waste is a good first step, in my opinion.  I am very excited to be starting this project.

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Goal: To create usable soil from waste products commonly found in kitchens around the world.

Location:

Our meetings take place Monday-Thursday from 10 am to 3 pm.  We meet at Bergen Community college, exact location of project TBA.

Tools:

"Vega-Watt" - A device sold in order to cut down on the wasteful used oil that is commonly thrown away in the majority of restaurants.  This device breaks down the used oil in order to create both electricity and hot water.  This is through a four-stage cleaning process where the used oil is put through a series of filters that treat the oil in order to transfer it to a generator.

Via People Powered Machines

"Rocket Composter" - A quick way to break down organic materials into compost.  This machine was created by Tiny Planet.  It gets extremely hot and spins the waste, making the composting process go faster than if it was left to naturally break down.

Via Environmental Services Inc.

"Red Wiggler Worms" E. Fetida.  - These are a species of worm native to Europe that live above the soil.  They are capable of consuming their own body weight in decaying materials a day.

Via Wikipedia

Our Steps:

Step One) Use the VegaWatt to reuse old oil, generating electricity for our Rocket Composter.

Via On-Set Comp

Step Two) Now that the Rocket Composter has power, we can use waste products from the same kitchen in order to break down compost.

Via SlideShare

Step Three) After the composting process, the soil is still not quite ready to house plants.  Thus, the worms are added.  The worms are able to eat a lot more than they usually would thanks to the compost pile being already kick-started for them.

Via Worms Ect

In the end, we will (hopefully) end up with healthy soil that can be used for plants, and less waste in the long run!  Compared to regular composting, this is much faster.  We can also see if this soil we created is any better than commercially sold soil.