NHR is sharing a fermentation-monitoring application at a composting operation in Taiwan, giving staff round-the-clock visibility into pile-core temperatures and moving turning and discharge decisions from veteran intuition to documented evidence.
Continuous measurement in a hot, corrosive environment
Compost quality is written almost entirely in the temperature curve, yet everything happens deep inside the pile, out of sight. Manual probing with long-stem thermometers was slow and physically demanding, capturing only momentary values at a few points — and the hot, saturated interior with its corrosive gases and leachate meant ordinary sensing equipment rarely survived long.
The NHR solution pairs S09 smart wireless transmitters with anti-corrosion temperature probes inserted into the pile core, measuring continuously with multiple depths and positions per pile. Readings report to the cloud over cellular connectivity, so no cabling runs across the yard and sensing points move flexibly as piles are turned, while thresholds set per process stage trigger alerts the moment conditions drift.
Early alerts and a record behind every batch
After deployment, pile anomalies shifted from "found by chance during rounds" to "flagged in advance by the system." Stalled heating or abnormal overheating is identified early enough for staff to turn the pile or adjust moisture and aeration in time, clearly reducing the risk of failed batches and rework — and manual probing rounds at high-risk points fell by about half.
Complete temperature histories are archived automatically for every batch, giving turning and discharge timing a data basis for the first time. Quality fluctuations can be traced to their cause, and veteran experience is gradually distilled into repeatable, transferable process parameters that make compost quality steadier with every batch.