Toilet 2.0 - the next Generation

In recent years we have seen a transition from analogue radio and television to digital services.

Smarter telephone technologies including video and net based applications are complementing the traditional voice down a copper wire.

Automotive companies are starting to roll out electric vehicles to replace internal combustion engine technologies.

These processes are transitional.

Prototypes were developed.  They begin as pilot projects, to prove the concept.

This is exactly what is proposed for developing Toilet 2.0 technologies.



The rationale for source segregation is to encourage nutrient recovery and reduce to costs and environmental impacts of the tradition method of aggregating urine and feaces with vast quantities of flush water, grey water and trade waste.

We need to identify pilot projects, to demonstrate the concepts of source separation of urine and feaces.

We need to develop the supporting processes, the institutional arrangements and encourage the social acceptance of the paradigm shift.

We need to develop trade waste policies and charges that incentivate and support source segregation.

Using traditional toilet technologies, there is a peak load of nitrogen, phosphorus that coincides with a hydraulic peak load, every morning and evening.

We need business models and a business case that demonstrates the value of source segregation.  There is a potential for delaying large capital investment for infrastructure upgrades by reducing the peak loads.  There are opportunities to reduce or avoid the operational costs at sewage treatment plants by reducing the need for energy intensive, biological and chemical processes for removing nitrogen and phosphorus.

The Toilet2.0 technologies provide an opportunity to lower the costs of delivery of sewage treatment services and increase the opportunities for resources recovery, energy efficiency, water efficiency and better environmental outcomes.

If Toilet2.0 technologies can be developed and demonstrated in my community, there is a huge market potential to meet the needs of 2.6 billion people who lack access to any form of toilet.

Urine separation toilets

One of the first principles of process engineering is segregation (or separation of waste streams). The effluent from one process can be the influent for another. In many developed societies, we aggregate our poo & our wee with vast quantities of water, transfer the slurry over vast distances, only to separate the components out again using energy intensive physical, chemical & biological processes.

Physiologically, are poo & our wee are separated. We need to design our user interfaces (toilets) with baffles or separate urinals to enable the collection of urine.

Urine can be a precursor or feedstock for many useful industrial chemicals including fertilizers, sodium hypochlorite (bleach).

Head to the Year Of Humanitarian Engineering Website & join the discussion.

AUSTRALIAN TOIlLET ASSOCIATION, ECOSANITATION COURSE

When: Saturday 3 July 2010
Time: 09:00 - 17:00
Where: University of Queensland - Brisbane
room 414 in the Chamberlain building

Charge: $60 working people, $40 students & EWB members
RSVP: rowan@carbon-counters.com



Information: A one day course on ecological sanitation (also known as
urine diversion, dry composting toilets). The course aims to develop
and promote sustainable sanitation in the developing world (& in
Australia) through capacity development and knowledge as a
contribution to equity, health, poverty alleviation and improved
environmental quality. The course draws on the Sustainable Sanitation
Alliance (SuSanA) and local experts.

This course will be followed up with an opportunity to construct an
ecosan toilet......on another occasion.

1. What does "ecosan" stand for and what is the principle behind it?
Ecosan is short for "ecological sanitation". Ecosan systems enable the recovery of nutrients contained in excreta and household wastewater and promote their safe reuse in agriculture. They contribute to preserving soil fertility, whilst minimising the consumption and pollution of water resources. Additionally, they have the potential to produce renewable energy from biogas systems.

2. What does "sanitation" comprise?
The main objective of a sanitation system is to protect human health by breaking the cycle of disease. Sanitation includes four technical areas:
* excreta management (faeces and urine)
* greywater management
* solid waste management and
* rainwater drainage.
Sanitation policies need to be closely interlinked with many sectors of society (e.g. infrastructure, health, education, agriculture, urban planning).

3. What is the definition of an "ecosan toilet"?
The term "ecosan toilet" is widely used but we do not recommend to use it, because ecosan is not limited to a specific toilet type but is rather a concept. Even a flush toilet could be part of an ecosan approach, e.g. if flushed excreta are treated anaerobically together with animal manure to produce biogas. The so-called “ecosan toilet” should rather be called a urine-diversion dehydration toilet (UDDT), or - as a compromise – an “ecosan UDD toilet”.
For further information, see our technical data sheet on urine diversion.

4. Is ecosan the same as “dry sanitation”?
Ecosan and dry sanitation are not identical: Toilets which use water for flushing can also be used in an ecosan concept (e.g. vacuum toilets, urine-diversion flush toilets, but even conventional flush toilets if connected to a safe and sustainable reuse system).

http://www.gtz.de/en/themen/umwelt-infrastruktur/wasser/28993.htm
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DRAFT Programme

The proposed programme might include:

9:00 Welcome/Introductions
9:10 Water and sanitation in developing countries - Community Led Total Sanitation
10:00 Morning Tea
10:30 Case Study - Base of Pyramid stuff in Cambodia
11:00 Environmental Health
12:00 Lunch
13:00 Household Water Treatment & Safe Storage
13:30 Sanitation Systems & technologies
14:00 Case Study - Currumbin EcoVillage
14:30 Urine stuff
15:00 Faecal Sludge Management and Solid Waste Management
15:30 Planning for Environmental Sanitation
16:00 Discussion