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The purpose of the project was to initially design a home biodigester from recycled materials. This led to designing and developing a monitoring solution for the biodigester to measure pH, temperature, safety and efficiency.
The increasing cost of energy bills can be addressed in part by developing a biodigester for use in rural homes in Ireland. Biodigesters are naturally cheap to make using recycled materials. Safety and efficiency are addressed with the monitoring solution which allows real-time insights into the biodigester.
Every home could reduce the cost of bin charges by using organic waste in the brown bin to feed the biodigester. The biodigester in turn produces gas. This is an excellent way of reducing waste and refuse for families. This project can also be adapted for use in developing countries providing gas for families to cook at least one meal a day.
Research shows that the biggest factors that affect biogas production are temperature, humidity, pressure, pH and depth. Using an Arduino board, the temperature, humidity, pressure, pH and depth sensors were wired to the board and coded using Arduino C. All the sensors were coded separately and then combined into one sensor. A dashboard was designed to monitor and control the Arduino board, allowing real time insights into what is happening live in the biodigester. The second protoype is in the development stage. It is believed the readings will be as per the recommended levels. This will change the future of biodigester monitoring.
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