Compost fire risk reduced

City of Greater Geelong myor Peter Murrihy with Geelong Manufacturing Council CEO Jennifer Conley and co-directors of Sequence Digital Patrick Blampied and Raj Pandita. (Reg Ryan)

A $26,000 grant to a Geelong company is hoped to reduce the risk of fires in garden organics facilities.

Sequence Digital this week launched a fleet of new 4G, weather-proof, solar-powered temperature sensors in a pilot program at the City of Greater Geelong’s Garden Organics Processing Facility in Anakie.

The Clean Technology grant was awarded in 2019 through Cleantech Innovations Geelong, a business and industry support program funded by the City of Greater Geelong, the Victorian government, and the Geelong Manufacturing Council.

The new devices will monitor 10,000 cubic metres of garden organics – the equivalent of four Olympic-sized swimming pools – collected from household green bins across Greater Geelong.

Co-director of Sequence Digital Patrick Blampied said the industrial temperature sensor has a ground-breaking design with the ability to operate in remote areas where the internet signal is weak and the weather conditions extreme.

“These devices are tough as nails and send critical temperature data to the cloud in real-time, rain, hail or shine, even in areas with patchy rural internet connectivity,” Mr Blampied said.

“The Cleantech Innovations grant made it possible to redesign our earlier prototype from the ground-up to make sure it could be used in the most remote outdoor organics facilities across Australia.”

Innovative Solutions Deputy Chair Sarah Mansfield said the new Geelong Garden Organics Composting Facility between Anakie and Lovely Banks processes up to 35,000 tonnes per year of green organics collected from garden waste bins.