COMPOBALL

Who the project is aimed at

Operators/managers of composting plants.

Project objective

To develop a new system for the continuous measurement and transmission of data, including both temperature and moisture levels in compost piles. from several points in order to comply with strict regulations and ensure efficient, high-performance composting.

Project description

The COMPO-BALL system has been developed to measure temperature and moisture during composting processes using autonomous, encapsulated wireless sensor nodes.

The system consists of:

• New independent wireless nodes that can be distributed throughout the composting material, new sensors to measure temperature and moisture in contact with the composting material, and a new contactless battery charging system
• A wireless communication network that allows autonomous sensor nodes to communicate with each other and send their data to a pile hub device
• A pile hub device that collects data from the sensor nodes and retransmits it to the gateway.
• An easy-to-use web interface for monitoring data and controlling or adjusting the entire COMPO-BALL system
• A simple, clearly described procedure for deploying the balls at the beginning of the process and retrieving them at the end.

The key innovative technical features of the COMPO-BALL monitoring system are:

• Multiple measurement points per pile
• Complete encapsulation of wireless sensors in an inert protective material
• Contactless temperature and moisture sensors: no sensor corrosion or clogging
• Contactless inductive charging system
• Fully wireless installation of sensor nodes and the pile hub
• Collected data accessible through a web-based user interface from anywhere and at any time.

Project funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.