Prediction of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from decomposition of local household food waste using the artificial neural network

Abstract

This study examines the potential of artificial neural network (ANN) to predict Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOCs) released via decomposition of local food wastes. To mimic the decomposition process, a bioreactor was designed to stimulate the food waste storage condition. The food waste was modeled based on the waste composition from a residential area. A feed forward multilayer back propagation (Levenberg – Marquardt training algorithm) was then developed to predict the TVOCs. The findings indicate that a two-layer artificial neuron network (ANN) with six input variables and these include (outside and inside temperature, pH, moisture content, oxygen level, relative humidity) with a total of eighty eight (88) data are used for the modeling purpose. The network with the highest regression coefficient (R) is 0.9967 and the lowest Mean Square Error (MSE) is 0.00012 (nearest to the value of zero) has been selected as the Optimum ANN model. The findings of this study suggest the most suitable ANN model that befits the research objective is ANN model with one (1) hidden layer with fifteen (15) hidden neurons. Additionally, it is critical to note that the results from the experiment and predicted model are in good agreement.