Black Soldier Fly Composting (BSFC) is a process by which organic waste is fed to Black Soldier Fly (BSF) larvae, vastly reducing the quantity of waste and producing byproducts that can then be used as fertilizer. In order to facilitate the process of BSFC an artificial environment has been created in the RIT Community Garden and a prototype for feeding and containing the BSF was created by a previous MSD group, P19422. However, the current prototype sometimes malfunctions when dispensing food, does not properly facilitate the movement of the BSF throughout their lifecycle, and is expensive/time consuming to manufacture.

The goals of the new project are to improve the existing design of the composter to prevent spills and facilitate BSF migration, develop a manufacturing process to reduce costs/labor, better manage moisture, and propose a theoretical method by which to scale this process and accommodate all of RIT's food waste.

Diagram of Black Soldier Fly Composting (BSFC) Cycle

Project Name

Black Soldier Fly Composter

Project Number

P20422

Project Family

Sustainability

Start Term

2191

End Term

2195

Faculty Guide

Mark Minunni, mxmddm@rit.edu

Primary Customer

Sarah Brownell, sabeie@rit.edu

Planning & Execution

Project Photos and Videos

Imagine RIT

Gate Reviews

Problem Definition

Systems Design

Preliminary Detailed Design

Detailed Design

Build & Test Prep

Subsystem Build & Test

Integrated System Build & Test

Customer Handoff & Final Project Documentation (Verification & Validation)

PRP

Requirements

Schedule

Cost

Risk Management

Problem Management

Communication & Minutes

Use Cases

Benchmarking

Functional Decomposition

Morphological Chart

Pugh Concept Selection

BOM

Mechanical Drawings

Electrical Schematics

Software Diagrams

Facility Layout

Manuals

Mockups

Test Fixtures

Prototyping

Test Plans

Analysis Results

Simulations

Test Results

Design Review Documents

Technical Paper

Poster

Imagine RIT Exhibit