Waste Reduction Project

What is the Buoyancy Problem?

The Buoyancy Problem is associated with the cargo delivery of airships. When the payload of an airship is offloaded at their target destination, the weight of the craft is reduced. As the aircraft operates with the laws of equilibrium, the same weight must be loaded for the return trip for the aircraft to maintain its flight plan. Equivalently, the same weight in lift gas could be pumped out. As such, our project aims to offer an innovative and time-sensitive solution to this problem.

Proposed Solution

On return to the launch sites in the rural areas, airships should be loaded with food waste from markets. Farmers in rural areas could use this organic waste to make simple compost pits. From a 2015 study, 37% of municipal solid waste (MSW) in Arusha was food waste and a majority of this waste was generated in the market areas. Moreover, this study showed that the MSW from Arusha, Tanzania amounted to at least 120 tons per day. As such, sufficient food waste is expected to be generated from the market areas to replace the weight of the offloaded agricultural produce.

Composition of Municipal Solid Waste in Arusha, Tanzania

Example of Waste Heap Commonly Observed in Arusha, Tanzania

Requirements

Solarship food waste collection bins would be set up in the market areas and onloading of waste into returning powerstats would be overseen by designated Solar Ship personnel.
For sanitary reasons, the payload of the powerstats would be divided into four compartments: two compartments for the outgoing agricultural produce and two compartments for the incoming food waste. The two compartment filled at each time would be diagonally across to ensure that cargo weight is balanced.
Farmers would be trained in simple composting technique to boost quality and quantity of crops using the returned waste material.

Page updated

Report abuse