Abstract
A well established research field in the waste management concerns
the mathematical description of the organic matter degradation.
Starting from a paper of Lin et al. (2008), we introduce a
mathematical model for the composting process in biocells, by
including several biological phenomena, like the aerobic
biodegradation of the soluble substrate, the hydrolysis of the
insoluble one and the biomass decay. A key role is played by the
oxygen that, in absence of external operations, is set to be
consumed. An optimal control problem is formulated to determine the
best aeration strategy guaranteeing the aerobic feature of the process.
Possible inhibition effects in over aerated systems will be also
considered as well as the bioeconomic aspects of the aeration process.
