410 Int. J. Environment and Waste Management, Vol. 23, No.

4, 2019

A conceptual framework of internet of things for

efficient municipal solid waste management and
waste to energy implementation

Neeraj Bhanot*
Quantitative Methods and Operations Management,
Indian Institute of Management Amritsar,
Punjab 143105, India
Email: neeraj.bhanot@iimamritsar.ac.in
*Corresponding author

Vinay Kumar Sharma

Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology Jalandhar,
Punjab 144011, India
Email: sharmavinay440@gmail.com

Aman Singh Parihar

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering,
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology Jalandhar,
Punjab 144011, India
Email: amansinghparihar690@gmail.com

Manik Sharma
Department of Chemical Engineering,
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology Jalandhar,
Punjab 144011, India
Email: maniksharma376@gmail.com

Manish Yadav and Harsh Gupta

Department of Industrial and Production Engineering,
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology Jalandhar,
Punjab 144011, India
Email: manish.yadav900@gmail.com
Email: harshgupta388@gmail.com

Abstract: With a population of 1.252 billion, India holds the second position in
the world and is one of the fastest developing countries as well. However, like
every good thing has to pay a certain cost, the country is now facing an
alarming threat of health and environmental problems due to its poor waste
management practices. This paper presents a theoretical framework of an

Copyright © 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

A conceptual framework of internet of things 411

integrated approach of solid waste management system in which a waste

segregation layout is shown including waste to energy (WtE) application of the
refused derived fuel formed in the process. Real-time monitoring of the
segregation process and energy extraction process is done using internet of
things (IoT) application. Segregation of waste before processing gives an
efficient way of waste management and with this framework, one can easily
monitor and acquire various information obtained during different stages of
segregation and energy extraction process.

Keywords: solid waste management; internet of things; IoT; municipal solid

waste; waste segregation; load sensor; waste incineration plant; remote
viewing.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Bhanot, N., Sharma, V.K.,
Parihar, A.S., Sharma, M., Yadav, M. and Gupta, H. (2019) ‘A conceptual
framework of internet of things for efficient municipal solid waste management
and waste to energy implementation’, Int. J. Environment and Waste
Management, Vol. 23, No. 4, pp.410–432.

Biographical notes: Neeraj Bhanot is currently an Assistant Professor in the

domain of Quantitative Methods and Operations Management, Indian Institute
of Management Amritsar. He completed his graduation in Mechanical
Engineering and Post-graduation in Industrial Engineering from the Guru
Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana and completed his PhD from the
Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Delhi. He has also been awarded
with Young Scientist Award by Punjab Academy of Sciences, Patiala; Young
Engineers Award by Institution of Engineers India; and Gold Medal at
university level for Master’s degree. He also serves as a reviewer in
Benchmarking: An International Journal. His main research interests are
sustainable supply chain management, operations management and
performance enhancement using various research tools.

Vinay Kumar Sharma holds a Bachelor of Technology degree from the

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Institute
of Technology Jalandhar with 8.67 CGPA on a ten point scale. His main
research interests are waste to energy, material sciences, IC engines, robotics
and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Aman Singh Parihar holds a Bachelor of Technology degree from the

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Dr. B.R.
Ambedkar National Institute of Technology Jalandhar with 8.33 CGPA on a ten
point scale. His main research interests are Arduino programming, C/C++
programming, robotics and IOT.

Manik Sharma holds a Bachelor of Technology degree from the Department of

Chemical Engineering, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology
Jalandhar with 8.21 CGPA on a ten point scale. His main research interests are
waste to energy, energy engineering, industrial safety and hazard management
and chemical reaction engineering.

Manish Yadav holds a Bachelor of Technology degree from the Department of

Industrial and Production Engineering, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of
Technology Jalandhar with 8.48 CGPA on a ten point scale. His main research
interests are waste management, environmental planning and control and
supply chain management.
412 N. Bhanot et al.

Harsh Gupta holds Bachelor of Technology degree from the Department of

Industrial and Production Engineering, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of
Technology Jalandhar with 8.40 CGPA on a ten point scale. His main research
interests are waste to energy, manufacturing technology, work study and
ergonomics and lean six sigma techniques.

1 Introduction

Solid waste management is a process of collection, transportation and disposal of the

solid waste from the community. The waste in India included a variety of components
such as kitchen waste, paper and cardboard, construction debris, textiles, etc.
(Ramaswami et al., 2016). The present management techniques include land filling,
composting, waste incineration, etc. All these techniques have their own limitations. For
example, unscientific land filling practices which are followed currently causes methane
emission which is not under control, host of other gases which are hazardous like SOx,
CO2, CO, NOx, etc. (Rahman et al., 2016) are also generated as a result of uncontrolled
garbage burning leading to pollution in the atmosphere and since municipal solid waste
(MSW) is generally dumped on the open ground, so by leachate it gives rise to ground
water pollution containing a number of toxic and dissolved materials. The composting
and recycling techniques are only possible for organic waste and recyclable waste
respectively. So there is not a single process which could be used to dispose this type of
waste effectively. Also unlike western countries includes up to 40% of moisture by mass
(Waste Management World, 2012) so waste incineration requires very large amount of
energy just for the purpose of waste disposal.
In this paper, we are presenting an integrated way of solid waste management and
framework of waste to energy (WtE) plant so that almost all kind of wastes can be treated
efficiently and we can generate energy also. For that, we have considered the MSW, the
composition of which is described in the first section. In the second section of
methodology, the layout of solid waste segregation to different types of waste and its
further processing is shown along with the internet of things (IoT) application with the
help of load sensors to find out the quantity of waste after each process in real-time. After
that, the WtE section is explained for using the refused derived fuel (RDF). In the last
section flue gas treatment of the boiler is done.
The organisation of this paper is as follows: ‘literature review’ section reveals the
relevant literature for issues related to solid waste management and IoT-based application
for the enhancement of waste management techniques. ‘Problem description’ section
introduces the background and the context of the study and some of the limitations.
‘Processing of MSW’ section explains about the technique used in the waste segregation
with a proper layout including material balance sheet and energy generation layout.
‘Energy recovery’ section included the properties of the fuel obtained from waste and the
formulas that could be used for theoretical calculations of plant layout parameters. ‘Flue
gas treatment’ section shows the process of treatment of flue gas coming out of the boiler
before escaping to the atmosphere. ‘Techniques for implementation of IoT framework’
section contains all the modules and sensors used. In the ‘working’ section the method of
data generation and data transmission are discussed. ‘Results and discussion’ section
further presents the results by taking a case study for the data generation, data processing,
 A conceptual framework of internet of things 413

and data transmission. Lastly, ‘conclusion’ section highlights the utility of study with
some concluding remarks.

2 Literature review

This section presents the literature review which is divided into two sections. Section 1 is
regarding all the work done in the solid waste management techniques, and in the second
section, all the work regarding to IoT implementation in the waste management is shown.

2.1 Solid waste management techniques

Due to the modernisation of almost everything, one of the major problems the world
today facing is the handling of the waste. Waste itself is a vast and endless quantity. So, if
we go on to narrow our scope of a problem, then its biggest constituent is the solid waste.
In India also, the amount of solid waste being generated daily is umpteen and if this pace
is to be kept on, then the day will not be away that we shall see heaps of waste as tall as
the buildings we are living in. Apart from contributing to the less generation of the waste,
what we can do is proper handling and ironically the utilisation of the thing which we
have designated as the so-called waste. There have been many researchers who have been
trying to identify the cause of so much generation of this waste and some are trying to
find ways to efficiently and economically handle these wastes, and there are some others
also, who are planning on to utilise this waste.
Joshi et al. (2015) tried to find out the annual greenhouse emissions from the solid
waste generated in the city of Ahmedabad of Gujarat by using some management method
specific emission factors in conjunction with IPCC methodologies. Here, they compared
the usage of ‘centralised’ and ‘decentralised’ methods of solid waste handling and then
concluded that optimal ration of each method is necessary for minimising the pressure of
natural capital, and no single method alone can do the work as efficient as the
combination of the twos.
If we come onto the reasons for the generation of this increasing amount of waste,
then, Tadesse et al. (2008) analysed the factors affecting the decisions related to
household waste disposal. The outcomes demonstrated which supply of waste facilities
substantially affects the choice of waste disposal. Insufficient supply of the containers
and longer haul to these containers increase the contingency of waste dumping at
roadsides and in open areas related to the usage of communal containers.
Similarly, ISWM model was used by Topic and Biedermann (2015), which follows
the analytical framework methodology and has its base on the life cycle approach. It also
follows the analytical framework methodology, to the research region. The empirical test
of transdisciplinary research framework was conducted and subsequently applied in the
region Republika Srpska. The waste management can be summarised in assessment
profile by making use of benchmark methodology (based on environmental, institutional
and economic sustainability).
Sharma and Chandel (2016) used the life cycle assessment methodology to find out
the impact of MSW in six different scenarios in the city of Mumbai, Maharashtra. Global
warming, acidification, eutrophication and human toxicity were assessed as
environmental impact categories. An integrated MSW management approach with a mix
414 N. Bhanot et al.

of recycling, composting, anaerobic digestion and landfill had the lowest overall
environmental impact. The technologies, such as incineration, would reduce the global
warming emission because of the highest avoided emissions; however, human toxicity
would increase.
As far as the treatment is concerned, Torres and ELloréns (2008) found out that how
the pre and post treatments of the solid waste with the help of chemicals and ozonation,
effects the utilisation and handling of the waste in the cities of Cuba. The chemical
pretreatment of solid wastes (sludge and OFMSW) constitutes a viable alternative for the
solubilisation of complex materials. It is confirmed also that the inclusion of the
ozonation stage (as post treatment) guarantees the elimination of pathogenic
microorganisms, demonstrating the application of ozone as an oxidising and disinfectant
agent. The treatment sequence (coagulation-flocculation-ozonation) demonstrated the
possibility of an alternative for leachate treatment under Cuban conditions.

2.2 Application of IoT framework for solid waste management

There has been some work done by different people from various horizons of the planet
regarding solid waste management using different techniques. As Avram (2015) showed
in his paper that how they made use of the concept of IoT to provide a framework for a
smart waste management system. He used different protocols like IPv6, HTTP, SSL and
adapted from technology that has proven itself mature.
Similarly, in the paper written by Zanella et al. (2014), it is depicted that
comprehensive survey of the protocols, technologies, and architecture have been used for
an urban IoT and also the best guidelines and technically sound solutions adopted in the
Padova Smart City project. This stands as a proof-of-concept deployment of an IoT island
in the city of Padova, Italy, carried out in collaboration with the city municipality.
In another scenario, Singh et al. (2016) proposed the solution in their paper in the
form of a three tier waste management system: Intelligent bin, gateway, remote base
station. The parameters of the bin monitored are transmitted through a gateway to the
remote base station to be stored in a database. So, the main idea here is to convey a
message to the collecting unit about the filling of the garbage and wireless connection has
been seen trending in this respect. Other useful types of equipment like RFIDs, cameras,
etc. can also be used for advanced monitoring as is shown by Medvedev et al. (2015) in
their paper that their so-called intelligent transportation system (ITS). It combines with
the components of IoT like RFIDs, cameras, actuators, etc. for efficient waste collection.
On the same lines in paper Gubbi et al. (2013), ubiquitous sensing is used in many
areas of modern day living and is enabled by wireless sensing network. This provides us
the advantage of measuring, integrating and understanding environmental indicators. The
widespread use of these devices in a communicating and actuating network establishes
the IoT, where sensors and actuators go parallel with the environment around us, and the
information is shared at various levels to give an insight of a common operating picture
(COP). Due to the adaptation of different wireless technologies such as RFID tags,
actuated nodes, and embedded sensors, IoT has grown up out of its infant stage and is the
another game-changing technology in the transformation of the Internet to a completely
integrated future internet. The need for data-on-demand using sophisticated, intuitive
queries increases significantly as they move from www (static pages web) to web2
(social networking web) to web3 (ubiquitous computing web). For the worldwide
implementation of IoT, a cloud-centric vision is presented in this paper. A cloud
 A conceptual framework of internet of things 415

implementation using Aneka based on the interaction of public and private clouds is
presented. Our IoT vision can be concluded by expanding on the requirement for
convergence of WSN, the distributed computing, and internet directed at technological
research community.
In another paper by Li et al. (2017), industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSNs)
helps in creating a highly reliable industrial system and in monitoring the industrial
equipment. In order to obtain useful information anytime and anywhere, integration of
IWSNs into the internet as part of the industrial IoT is desirable. To authenticate,
authorise and revoke a user to have access of IWSNs, it is important to design an access
control scheme. In this paper, he first gave a certificate less sign cryption scheme and
then designs an access control scheme for the IWSNs in the context of the industrial IoT
using the certificate less sign cryption. When compared with existing two access control
schemes using traditional sign cryption, their scheme achieves public verifiability, cipher
text authenticity, and insider security. Also, the computational cost of the sensor node in
their scheme is reduced by 62% and 77%, respectively and the energy consumption of the
sensor node in their scheme is reduced by about 64% and 75%, respectively.
In all the papers discussed above, the integration of digitisation of the plant outputs
has not been included, which would have made it much easier for the organisations to
ensure proper eye on the plant output, to gather feedback from the data received and to
implement the required corrective measures. Based on the above findings from the
literature, the paper tends to focus on following objectives:
1 proposing an effective framework for treatment of MSW
2 real-time monitoring of the segregation process and energy extraction process using
IoT application
3 integrating all the values received from corresponding sensors with the help of
Arduino Uno module to feed in the C/C++ programming platform and wirelessly
transmitting to the online accounts via IOT framework.
In this study, an IoT-based theoretical framework has been presented for an integrated
approach to solid waste management and WtE implementation where all the data from
different processes, waste segregation, and energy recovery plant are shown on screen.

3 Problem description

The proposed waste management technique includes four steps:

• source reduction includes decreasing the amount of the waste at the source itself
• recycling materials such as glass, plastic metals, etc. and organic composting
• conversion technologies basically include the ways of generating energy from waste
• land filling means disposal of waste in the land pits.
Hierarchy comparison of the current system and proposed system differs in a way that the
current system focuses more on land filling and less on source reduction as shown in
Figure 1. The disadvantage is that the amount of waste to be land filled is enormous and
due to these dumpsites the valuable land, which is very precious for the development of
416 N. Bhanot et al.

new infrastructures, is being permanently blocked. Due to the rapid growth, the average
waste generation in India is also increasing by 1.3% each year (Li et al., 2017). At the
same time, the urban population is also expected to increase up to around 37% of total
population by 2021 (Padam and Singh, 2004). Whereas in the proposed hierarchy we are
focusing more on the source reduction so that the amount of waste left for land filling is
too small.

Figure 1 Hierarchy comparison of current solid waste management with preferred one
(see online version for colours)

Source: Gubbi et al. (2013)

In order to implement the preferred hierarchy of the solid waste management, proposed
layout of segregation of MSW to perform recycling, land filling, composting and energy
recovery is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 Overall layout for segregation of MSW (see online version for colours)
 A conceptual framework of internet of things 417

The organics waste is to be sent to the biogas plants for energy extraction and can be used
for composting. The combustible waste is to be processed in, to form RDF which can be
burnt in the boiler of thermal power plants. The inert, inorganic and ash formed in the
boiler in small amounts are disposed of in landfill dumps. The detailed segregation
process is presented further in the paper.

3.1 Types of waste in India

Waste can be broadly classified as: (Waste advantage, 2014)
• biomedical waste
• biomass waste
• industrial waste
• urban waste.
In this paper only MSW is considered which comes under the urban waste. The
classification percentage is taken from solid waste India review (Solid waste India
review, 2008) and has been presented in Figure 3. This includes the following
components:
• kitchen waste
• paper and cardboards
• plastics
• textiles
• leather and rubber
• wood and garden trimming
• glass
• dirt and ash
• construction debris.

Figure 3 Classification of MSW (see online version for colours)

418 N. Bhanot et al.

3.2 Processing of MSW

After unloading in the pits immediately, the MSW shall be sprayed with herbal
inoculums for retarding its decomposition. The material is picked up from the pit through
the grab buckets and made to fall on the moving conveyor which is usually done by
electric overhead travelling crane. All of the unwanted and odd sized objects should be
handpicked at the manually operated separation station (which includes large twigs,
textile papers, consumer durables and wooden pieces) and which are dropped down into
the respective chutes for collection purpose. The material after the manual inspection is
subjected through a permanent magnetic separator to remove ferrous objects. Since the
non-ferrous materials like soft drink cans, etc. are removed by the rag pickers, therefore,
the eddy current system may or may not be used depending on the situation, i.e., eddy
current system could be utilised to make sure the separation of non-ferrous materials.
After the MSW pit, it goes through many types of equipment to segregate all kinds of
waste, i.e., organic, inorganic/inert and combustibles.
The process has been summarised below along with suitable layout in Figure 4:
• manual sorting on a slow conveyer to reject the odd-sized objects
• magnetic separation of ferrous material
• size reduction and homogenisation of the large size material
• screening in Trommel
• drying of the homogeneous waste to reduce its moisture content
• density separation to remove the heavy rejects and residual dust.

3.3 Uses of the products of segregation

• Ferrous and non-ferrous waste collected is sent to the respective industries for
processing and recycling (which ever possible).
• The inert waste collected could be either land filled or could be used in construction.
• Organic waste can be processed in following two ways:
a The waste is sent to the compost pits and is treated under oxygen free conditions
resulting in the formation of biogas, which could be used for energy generation.
b The organic waste could be used for alcohol fermentation. Waste is decomposed
using yeast resulting in the formation of ethanol.
• The light combustible RDF1 formed in the end is used to produce energy by burning
it in the boiler in place of coal or fossil fuels.

3.4 Process of generating energy from RDF

RDF is burnt in an incinerator to get heat energy from it. Generally, waste incineration
plant consists of mainly following components and objectives of a waste incineration
plant and its components as referred from a textbook of power plant engineering have
been presented as follows:
 A conceptual framework of internet of things 419

• Furnace – removal of water, inorganic salts, and heavy metals.

a Drying and decomposition of organic matter.
b Production of exploitable slag.
c Reduction of residues.
• Boiler – energy extraction from RDF.
a Production of super-heated steam.
• Turbine and generator system
a Conversion of pressurised and superheated steam energy into mechanical
energy.
b Conversion of mechanical energy into electrical energy using generator coupled
to a turbine.
• Flue gas treatment and pollution control system
a Treatment of flue gas to remove harmful gasses such as NOx, SOx, dioxins,
furans, etc. below the minimum accepted value.
b Real-time monitoring of flue gasses using continuous emission monitoring
system.
Detailed segregation process of MSW and mass balance is shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4 Detailed segregation process of MSW and mass balance (see online version for colours)

Spray of
Herbal Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Pit
inoculum
2000 TPD

Manual segregation on slow conveyer

1800 TPD

3 TPD Ferrous
Magnetic seperater Recycling
material
1797 TPD

Screening in trommel (100 mm)

with bag ripples Inerts (–10 mm)
Land filling,
(small pebbles,
construction works
1382 TPD concrete, sand)
-100 mm
123 TPD
Screening in Trommel Treatment under FORMATION
(10/16 mm) Sent to
+100 mm

oxygen-free OF BIOGAS
compost pits
203 TPD conditions
Organic
415 TPD
(10–16 mm)
975 TPD
Alcohol Decomposition FORMATION
fermentation by yeast OF ETHANOL
16–100mm

Shredder (–100 mm)

20 TPD
1390 TPD
Dust
Air from hot air
generator (HAG) Rotary dryer
indirect type
Moisture
945 TPD 425 TPD

242 TPD Heavy fractions

Air density seperator
rejected

Light combustible refused

derived fuel (RDF) to storage
420 N. Bhanot et al.

Further, the complete layout of the WtE plant is shown in Figure 5 with all its
components.

Figure 5 WtE plant layout (see online version for colours)

Deaerater Condenser
Saturated
Low pressure High pressure liquid
heater heater
To the Economiser

Expanded steam

Boiler
Turbine generator Switch yard
RDF Pellet

Export
to grid
Super saturated steam

Internal consumption
Ash

Flue gas treatment system

Flue gasses
Ash
handling
Chimney with CEMS

3.5 Operations of the WtE plant

The operation to complete WtE plant includes three phases. It starts with waste
segregation then processing of combustible to make RDF and finally energy extraction
from RDF in a boiler to produce superheated steam and production of energy from that.
The whole process of WtE is summarised as following:
• collection of waste in waste pits
• spraying of herbal inoculums as for pre-treatment to prevent bad odour
• loading of waste onto conveyers for segregation
• removal of inert and organic waste into their respective buckets
• shredding of large sized combustibles into appropriate size (< 100 mm)
• removal of moisture and dust in hot air dryer to form RDF
• energy extraction from RDF in boiler to form hot flue gases
• production of super heated steam using hot flue gases
• expansion of steam in turbine to produce energy form generator coupled with steam
turbine
• flue gas cleaning
 A conceptual framework of internet of things 421

• real-time monitoring of flue gas data

• disposal of bottom-ash during energy extraction process in the boiler
• solid residue discharge/disposal.

3.6 Energy recovery calculations

In this section, various temperature and pressure values of steam and properties of RDF
have been presented in the SI units in Table 1 along with energy and work calculations.
Table 1 Properties of RDFs

Properties of RDF Values Unit

Heating value 8,790.6 KJ/kg
Combustion temp. 1,200 °C
Overall heat transfer efficiency 70% %
RDF Lasting time in furnace 0 Sec
Ash content 20 %
Moisture 20 %
Initial water temperature 25 °C
Temp of steam leaving the boiler 180 °C
Steam condition in turbine Values Unit
Inlet temperature 400 °C
Inlet pressure 41 Bar
Exhaust steam pressure 0.17 Bar

The formulas that to be used for calculations are as following:

Energy contained in fuel = M RDF × C v (1)

where
MRDF mass of RDF burnt per hour
Cv calorific value of RDF.
Let h1 = enthalpy(pump inlet)
h2 = enthalpy(boiler inlet)
(2)
h3 = enthalpy(turbine inlet)
h4 = enthalpy(turbine outlet)

Turbine work = h 3 − h 4 = Wt (3)

Pump work = h 2 − h1 = Wp (4)

Heat Supplied = h 3 − h 2 = Qin (5)

Work done = Wt − Wp (6)

422 N. Bhanot et al.

Efficiency of boiler = (Wt − Wp) / Qin (7)

Heat loss due to un burnt fly ash(in%)

(8)
= [ Ash collected / M RDF ] × [ GCVFlyash / GCVfuel ]

where
GCVFlyash gross calorific value of flyash
GCVfuel gross calorific value of fuel.

Heat loss due to moisture in fuel =  M × ( 584 + Cp ( Tf − Ta ) )  / GCVfuel (9)

where
M Kg moisture IN fuel on 1kg basis
Cp specific heat of superheated steam in Kcal/K
Tf flue gas temperature in degree Celsius
Ta ambient temperature in degree Celsius
584 latent heat corresponding to partial pressure.

Actual enthalpy after expansion in turbine, h4′ = h 3 − [( h 3 − h 4 ) / n turbine ] (10)

Dryness fraction in vapor = ( S − Sf ) / Sfg (11)

where
S entropy of superheated steam
Sf entropy of liquid
Sfg saturated evaporated liquid entropy
nturbine efficiency of turbine.
Actual work done per cycle = ( h 3 − h 4 ) × n turbine (12)

Net work done = Actual work done per cycle − v × dp (13)

where
v specific volume
dp change in pressure from inlet of turbine to outlet.

3.7 Flue gas treatment

During the operation of the power plant; air pollutant emissions, waste water, and solid
wastes such as boiler ash are generated. The release of pollutants, if unchecked, can lead
to negative impact on the environment. Therefore the system would be designed to
minimise the adverse effects to an acceptable level. The flue gasses coming out of the
boiler and the hot air generator contains oxides of sulphur and nitrogen, acids like
 A conceptual framework of internet of things 423

hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride, heavy metals, dioxins, and furans, etc.
Monitoring of air and water quality both at the source and at the plant site should be done
regularly as per central pollution control board (CPCB) guidelines.
The process of conditioning of the flue gasses is shown in Figure 6:

Figure 6 Flue gas treatment layout (see online version for colours)

The different pollutants present in the flue gas that are to be treated for reducing their
concentration are for example fly ash, dioxins, furans, NOx, SOx, etc. The method of
treatment used for their reduction along with the pollutant is shown in Table 2 (Karak
et al., 2012 ).
Table 2 Treatment methods for various pollutants

Pollutant Methods
HCl Wet scrubber (using lime)
Fly ash Bag filter
Dioxins Activated carbon
Furans Activated carbon
Sox Wet scrubber (using lime)
HF Wet scrubber (using lime)

The removal efficiency of dry lime is determined by various factors, such as:
• dust collection technique
• temperature
• sorbent disperse behaviour
• molar ratio between sorbent and polluted component.
Reactions involved in the pollutants reduction are as follows:
CaO + HC1 → CaCl2 + H 2 O

CaO + H → CaF2 + H 2 O

CaO + SO 2 + 1 O 2 → CaSO 4
2
424 N. Bhanot et al.

NH3 CO NH 3 → CO 2 + NH3

6NO + NH 3 → 4N 2 + 6H 2 O

2NO + 4NH 3 + O 2 → 3N 2 + 6H 2 O

NO + NO 2 + NH 3 → 3N 2 + 6H 2 O
Here, one of the major pollutants, HCl is being counter-attacked by the quicklime, i.e.,
CaO in the wet scrubber. CaO being alkaline in nature embarks the neutralisation reaction
with the HCl and helps to neutralise the acids. Same is used for other halogen acids like
HF, HI which are present in a very minute but very fatal amount. Another deadly gas, i.e.,
SO2 is tackled by the lime which precipitates it into CaSO4. Since we are using hot water
and CaSO4 is insoluble in hot water, we can precipitate it out from the set of bag filters.
Urea is being decomposed into its constituent compounds of NH3 and CO2. From here,
NH3 is made to react with NOx which reduces the gasses to simple N2 gas that are free to
be released in the environment. Other dangerous pollutants like dioxins and furans which
prove to be carcinogenic in humans are decomposed with the help of activated carbon
which adsorbs them and hence, are not released with the effluents.

4 Techniques for implementing IoT framework

Figure 7 given signifies the entire methodology adopted to integrate all the sensor values
as well as manual entries with Arduino and further manipulate those using formulae in
the C/C++ programming and wirelessly transmitting the outputs to the online accounts.

Figure 7 Layout of data generation and display

 A conceptual framework of internet of things 425

4.1 Techniques/modules
4.1.1 Arduino Uno module
Arduino Uno which is a microcontroller board based on ATmega328P, an 8-bit
microcontroller with flash memory of 32 KB and has a RAM of 2KB. It consists of
everything which is needed to support the microcontroller; to get started; you connect it
to a computer with a USB cable or power it with a AC-to-DC adapter or battery.
The Uno board is the reference model for the Arduino platform and is the first in a
series of USB boards.

4.1.2 Load sensors

Usually, two approaches are followed for establishing a link between the load cell and
Arduino:
With the first approach, by amplifying the load cell’s output voltage signal
(Arduino’s ADC is used to process a signal by using a pre-packaged instrumentation
amplifier IC like the INA125). Arduino is then interfaced with high-resolution ADC.
However, there is an another new option for those who seek a plug and play solution
to avoid extra wiring and coding: the strain gauge/load cell amplifier shield, making
Arduino and an instrumentation amplifier interfacing quite easier. One can use this
stackable shield with various low output sensors like load cells. This is a low-cost option
for precise amplification of measurements especially for ‘robotics, multichannel systems,
medical instrumentation, industrial process control and many more’.
The load cell shield features an AD8426 dual channel Instrumentation amplifier
(shown in Figure 8). The gain generated by the AD8426 amplifier range from 1 to 1,000
depending on the GAIN resistor value. The two onboard potentiometers are utilised to
adjust the output voltage reference of each channel. The shield also has a low-pass 2nd
order Bessel filter at 1,000 Hz for both channels.

Figure 8 Arduino setup with load sensor (see online version for colours)
426 N. Bhanot et al.

4.1.3 Temperature and moisture sensors

The DHT11 which is the basic low-cost digital humidity and temperature sensor makes
use of capacitive humidity sensor and a thermistor to measure the surrounding air and
gives a digital signal on the data pin (no analog input pins are required). It is very simple
to use and requires suitable timing to grab data and has been shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9 Arduino setup with temperature and moisture sensor (see online version for colours)

The DHT11 consists of three lines: +5V, GND along with single data line. The values are
clocked out over the single digital line using a handshake.

4.1.4 Wi-Fi module

The ESP8266 Wi-Fi module (Figure 10) has a powerful storage and on-board processing
capability which allows it to remain integrated with application specific devices and
sensors through its GPIOs with minimal development up-front and loading during
runtime. The high degree of on-chip integration including the front-end module designed
to occupy minimum PCB area has led to the minimum external circuitry. The ESP8266
supports APSD for VoIP applications and Bluetooth co-existence interfaces; it consists of
a self-calibrated RF which allows it to work under all operating conditions. External RF
 A conceptual framework of internet of things 427

parts are not required in it. The ESP8266 Wi-Fi module which is a self-contained SOC
along with integrated TCP/IP protocol stack which can allow any microcontroller to have
access to your Wi-Fi network. The ESP8266 possesses the capability of either offloading
all Wi-Fi networking functions from another application processor or hosting an
application.

Figure 10 Arduino setup with Wi-Fi module (see online version for colours)

4.2 Working
4.2.1 Data generation
All the load sensors with requisite circuitry will measure the weight of waste which is
incoming and the waste at every subsequent stage after processing through various
machines such as screening Trommel, shredder, rotary dryer. Temperature and moisture
sensor also measures the amount of moisture and temperature of the boiler used.
These values are used to calculate various parameters such as turbine work, pump
work, efficiency, etc.

4.2.2 Data transmission and processing

Wi-Fi module ESP8266 module is used for transmission of data to various channels
maintained through a password protected account on the ThingSpeak web server.
ThingSpeak contains multiple channels for receiving data from sensors connected to the
server through Arduino and Wi-Fi module. Also, a code in MATLAB allows the
ThingSpeak channel to calculate various parameters of boiler and turbines. The values
obtained from sensors are transmitted to ThingSpeak account where data is processed,
and different parameters for boiler and turbine are calculated using formulas.

5 Results and discussion

The values generated by sensors are exported to Arduino and then transmitted to the
server at ThingSpeak via Wi-Fi module and displayed in the form of various graphs for
different performance attributes as shown in Figures 11, 12 and 13 into several password
protected online accounts.
428 N. Bhanot et al.

Figure 11 Graphs of various indicators obtained through sensors (see online version for colours)
 A conceptual framework of internet of things 429

Figure 11 Graphs of various indicators obtained through sensors (continued) (see online version
for colours)

Figure 12 Graph of turbine work calculated through ThingSpeak (see online version for colours)

These pictures show the channel named industry with its author and channel ID. Data
collected from sensors would be processed on this channel. These graphs are
visualisations of various sensor data accessed by channel. All parameters needed like the
MSW (incoming), quantity to screening trammel, enthalpy at boiler inlet, etc. are plotted
with time and thus could be analysed.
430 N. Bhanot et al.

Figure 13 Graph of pump work calculated through ThingSpeak (see online version for colours)

After obtaining data from sensors and analysing some more calculations for parameters
like pump work and turbine work are done. For these calculations, a separate channel is
created which would access data from the previous channel and calculate parameters with
the help of MATLAB.

6 Conclusions

With the rapid increase in population, urbanisation and industrialisation in India, solid
waste generation is increasing at an exponential rate. The curb of solid waste is not only
the need of present but the demand of future. The only practical solution is the proper
segregation of the waste; treat the particular type of waste with the efficient method and
processing the combustible waste to form RDF to produce energy from it. This process of
segregation can be effectively complemented using IoT applications by keeping an eye
on the whole process. The current study tends to present a guiding framework for
effective solid waste management by integrating IoT techniques for real-time monitoring
of involved process to increase the efficiency of the process.
 A conceptual framework of internet of things 431

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Notes
1 Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) is a fuel that is produced by cutting the MSW into shreds and
dehydrating it. RDF consists of combustible materials such as paper, wood, plastics and
similar other combustibles present in the MSW.