Praj-ya Sungsomboon, Taweep Chaisomphob, Tetsuya Ishida, and Chira Bureecam

pp. 109 - 115

Abstract

“Serial Self-turning Reactors” (STR) is an innovative technology, which was developed to be an alternative organic
waste treatment for small communities in Thailand. It is a vertical-flow composting system which consists of a set of aerobic
reactors sandwiched with a set of self-turning units. Combination of those components results to a high performance composting with capacity flexible. The pilot-scaled prototype of the new technology has been tested to ensure its effectiveness.
This paper focuses on the implementation of STR technology. The study consisted of four parts: 1) selection of a target
community and investigation of its current MSW practice, 2) preparation of a proposal which STR incorporated would and
submit to the university’s administration for approval, 3) establishment of a demonstration plant and trial on actual practice,
and 4) discussion and evaluation of the new technology in general and economical aspects. Thammasat University Rangsit
campus was selected to be the target community to approach the new technology. An improvement program, namely
“Recycling and Composting Pretreatment Program” (RCPP) was proposed and implemented. Trial operation on plant-scale
performed effectively with low running costs. An economic evaluation of STR was carried out to generalize the system.