TY - JOUR AU - Larreategui, Estefanía AU - Banchón, Carlos PY - 2014/06/30 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - A mathematical model for reducing the composting time JF - Enfoque UTE JA - Enfoque UTE VL - 5 IS - 2 SE - DO - 10.29019/enfoqueute.v5n2.38 UR - https://ingenieria.ute.edu.ec/enfoqueute/index.php/revista/article/view/38 SP - pp. 29 - 37 AB - <p>(Received: 2014/05/12 - Accepted: 2014/06/27)</p><p>The environment is still affected by the inappropriate use of organic matter waste, but a culture of recycling and reuse has been promoted in Ecuador to reduce carbon footprint. The composting, a technique to digest organic matter, which traditionally takes 16-24 weeks, is still inefficient to use. Therefore, this paper concerns the optimization of the composting process in both quality and production time. The variables studied were: type of waste (fruits and vegetables) and type of bioaccelerator (yeast and indigenous microorganisms). By using a full factorial random design 2<sup>2</sup>, a quality compost was obtained in 7 weeks of processing. Quality factors as temperature, density, moisture content, pH and carbon-nitrogen ratio allowed the best conditions for composting in the San Gabriel del Baba community (Santo Domingo de los Colorados, Ecuador). As a result of this study, a mathematical surface model which explains the relationship between the temperature and the digestion time of organic matter was obtained.</p> ER -