English – Page 25 – Kretsloppsteknik

Capturing nutrients in Urine: Socio-technical evaluation of urine concentrating technologies

Published 25 November, 2019
By Prithvi Simha

The sanitation sector needs innovations with minimal environmental impacts and maximum resource recovery. Separate collection and treatment of urine is one such method. Technologies for dehydrating or concentrating urine are part of the emerging innovations that aim to increase resource recovery from human waste streams. Urine contains a majority of the nutrients found in human excreta, but also large volumes of liquid. Concentrating technologies have the potential to convert human urine into commercial-quality fertilizer and reduce transport and treatment costs. Several technologies are now being piloted around the world, however holistic studies of socio-cultural, institutional and environmental impacts are lacking.

The aim of this project is to investigate the potential for increasing the use of urine concentrating technologies. The proposed study uses a socio-technical approach to meet the following objectives: 1) investigate the potential for urine concentration to support global sustainability goals, 2) investigate the technical and market readiness of urine concentrating systems, and 3) study the socio-technical dynamics influencing urine concentrating systems in order to identify possible development strategies.

The Susana webinar on Sanitation and Employment aired 21/11 is now available online

Published 22 November, 2019
By Prithvi Simha

In this seminar, moderated by Alejandro Jiménez of the Stockholm International Water Institute, different aspects of employment in the sanitation sector are discussed. Rémi Kaupp from WaterAid tells us about the findings presented in a new WHO report on the Health, Safety and Dignity of Sanitation Workers. Martin Mawajje from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) describe how the emptying services in informal settlements can be formalised using a case from Kampala, Uganda as example. Daniel Ddiba, from the Stockholm Environment Institute tells us about a tool they have developed called REWAMP that can estimate and compare the circular economy potential of sanitation derived products from different sanitation technologies. The last presenter is Cecilia Lalander from our group that gives an example on how black soldier fly larvae treatment can be implemented by a sanitation entrepreneur.

Urine drying research gets funding from FORMAS annual open call

Published 21 November, 2019
By Prithvi Simha

We are quite happy to share that our project proposal to FORMAS, the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development, has recevied funding of 3 million SEK via the annual open call to continue research on the urine dehydration technology. Through this project, the overall goal will be to develop next generation urine dehydrator prototypes that are capable of recovering from urine >95% N, 100% P, and 100% K, in order to produce dry pellets with <5% moisture, but high fertiliser value: >10% N, >2.5% P, and >5% K. The work will be conducted at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences over 3 years between 2020 and 2023.

Björn and Cecilia talks toilets with P4 Uppland on the world toilet day 19th of November (Swedish only)

Published 20 November, 2019
By Evgheni Ermolaev

Link to article: https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=114&artikel=7347546

Link to the whole interview: https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/1399159 (1:04:00 into the show)

Global Webinar: Sanitation and Employment World Toilet Day 2019

Published 15 November, 2019
By Prithvi Simha

“Ask not what employment can do for sanitation – ask what sanitation can do for employment”.

Commemorating World Toilet Day 2019, Sida and partnersincluding SEI, SLU, WaterAid, SIWI, Univ of KwaZulu-Natal and SuSanA invite you to an inspirational webinar about the excellent yet untapped drivers for business, entrepreneurship and job opportunity that the sanitation value chain represents. While doing so, we will bring attention to critical challenges that workers in the sanitation industry often face and the needed actions being taken to tackle them.

Come and join the conversation on Thursday 21 November at 14:00-15.30 CET to learn more about improving the business of sanitation, for the sanitation workforce and the global communities they serve.

Join the webinar here: https://seint.adobeconnect.com/seiwebinar/

Master’s project Microplastic solution – Protein polymer from food waste

Published 12 November, 2019
By Evgheni Ermolaev

Insect protein-based polymer development provides a new alternative resource for plastic production allowing extracting value from food waste. The black soldier fly larvae efficiently convert organic material in the waste into their own biomass which is rich in protein. Using these proteins for plastic production allows taking advantage of the resources in food waste that are currently lost. Moreover, such production does not compete with food production unlike some other types of bioplastics.

Master’s Project: Insect protein resource for plastic production

Published 12 November, 2019
By Evgheni Ermolaev

Global plastic production is increasing with growing population and packaging demands. Plastic packaging production is responsible for nearly half of all plastic produced in EU. Currently there are no easy ways to recycle plastic mainly due to existence of multiple types of plastics that are not sorted properly. This leads to a reality that even in developed economies the majority of plastic packaging is not recycled but instead dumped, landfilled or in best case incinerated. While it is important to continue the work towards better plastic waste source-segregation, finding a sustainable and renewable raw material for plastic production is equally important.

SLU has its own urine-diverting flush toilet!

Published 7 November, 2019
By Prithvi Simha

Unpacking the new toilet at SLU!

Today was quite an exciting day at Kretsloppsteknik for the urine drying project as we received our shipment of a prototype of the pioneering urine-diverting toilet developed by EOOS, Eawag and LAUFEN. In the coming month, our group along with SLU and Akademiska Hus will install the toilet at the Department of Energy and Technology. We then plan to connect this toilet to a prototype of the urine dehydration technology being developed by us. The toilet along with our technology has the potential to disrupt the status quo in sanitation and revolutionise the sector! This installation is being supported by funding from the SLU Climate Fund.

New publication in the Global Water Pathogen Project about Salmonella

Published 5 November, 2019
By Prithvi Simha

Björn Vinnerås and Annika Nordin have together with R Hasan, S Shakoor and I Keenum compiled current knowledge regarding Salmonella. Our focus in the chapter has been the effect upon salmonella in relation to current practices and available treatment technologies. Treatment technologies for reduction of Salmonella in wastewater fractions can be divided into three main types: chemical, biological and thermal. When comparing the inactivation of Salmonella spp. with Escherichia coli, the latter is somewhat more resistant to most treatments and can therefore be used as a proper indicator for salmonella during treatments. Salmonella has several genetically-driven responses to stress related to the inactivation treatments, which increase survival during extreme conditions. In this chapter the inactivation time for salmonella in relation to pH, ammonia concentration and temperature is presented. For pH, generated inactivation chemical substances aid in the inactivation: at higher pH uncharged ammonia is the most active molecule enhancing inactivation while at low pH carbonate and organic acids both increase the efficiency of inactivation. For heat inactivation, increased dry matter content increases the time of survival. Biological treatments affect the survival, while also decreasing the number of viable Salmonella over time. However, the effect of the biological treatment is difficult to monitor and quantify and therefore extended treatment durations are recommended for biological treatment if the treatment is not combined with chemical or thermal treatment.

Waste management with insects was presented in Honour of Professor Erik Dahlquist

Published 5 November, 2019
By Prithvi Simha

Thursday last week (31/10), Björn and Cecilia from the Environmental Engineering group visited Västerås and presented about waste management using insects in the seminar held in Honour of Professor Erik Dahlquist. Erik Dahlquist is Professor in Energy Technology at the Mälardalen University and has with the help of his long experience in improvements of process efficiency development co-developed the ventilation system used in the fly larvae treatment system. We got to listen to other very interesting presentations on the batteries needed for our fossil free future and we got to listen to the tale of the development of the collaborative robot YuMi at ABB. Erik finished the seminar presenting the development of energy production and usage in primely Sweden from the 1950s till today and gave a prognoses of what can be expected up till 2090. Very interesting! Erik is to be retired but will work part time as Senior Professor from the start of next year. We hope for continued great collaboration and wish Erik good luck in future and more time with family and his triathlon endeavours.