System for automatically preventing the raising of ash from dedicated landfills

The paper presents a system for automatic prevention of raising of ashes from dedicated landfills based on a simple mathematical model which has modest entry requirements for meteorological data. Such an approach is efficient enough and enables fast information retrieval, i.e. zones with different concentrations of dust in the air, enabling quick start of counter measures to reduce emissions of ashes into the air. The system hardware consists of an automatic weather station, set of meters that determine moisture of ash, set of remotely managed sprinklers, computers, microprocessor and microcontroller based elements for the local acquisition and management of the executive elements and modules for wireless data transfer. An original software application for the system management has been developed. Within the application there is a module that allows entering of all data necessary to configure the system, as well as data about sensors and sprinklers. Based on the meteorological input data, measured moisture content of the ashes, and on the basis of determined functional dependencies, special software module operates sprinklers for soaking the surfaces from which the ashes is emitted into the air, in order to eliminate these emissions. The system, based on the developed mathematical model, predicts the propagation of ashes through the air, as well as dry and wet deposition, in real-time. The system automatically stores all the data relevant to the future analyses and reporting. The system is designed and implemented as modular and open. A custom developed graphical user interface serves as Man-Machine Interface (MMI). By using the TCP/IP connection it could be easily connected with the other information systems. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. TR-15005: Design and development of pilot system for preventing automatic raise of ashes from dedicated dumps]