Happy World Toilet Day!

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Today is all about toilets! Can you imagine how your life would be without one? They are a part of our lives so much, that we don’t even think about their existence.

Unfortunately, that is not the case for more than 3.6 billion people. They lack access to safe sanitation and their lives without a toilet are dirty, dangerous and undignified. Public health greatly depends on the toilets, as well as the improvements in gender equality, education, economics, and the environment. Our sustainable future cannot happen without them!

Each of us will spend around a year of their lives using a toilet, so if you have one, thank it and give it some love!

If you want to know more about how we can use toilets to create more sustainable future, please free to check out some of our research:

Happy Wold Toilet Day! 

Studiebesök fran Kjell och MÀrta Beijers Stiftelse

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Förra veckan vĂ€lkomnade Cecilia Lalander frĂ„n Kretsloppsteknik besökare frĂ„n Kjell och MĂ€rta Beijers Stiftelsen pĂ„ SLU Campus i Ultuna. I rampljuset var det senaste projekt “5 ton grön fisk i disk” (se blogginlĂ€gg frĂ„n 4 mars https://blogg.slu.se/kretsloppsteknik/2021/03/04/red-containers-at-campus/ ), dĂ€r insektsmjöl tillverkades till fiskfoder pĂ„ Campus Ultuna.

Besöket var ett utmÀrkt tillfÀlle att visa kretsloppsteknik-gruppens starka kompetens och relevans nÀr det gÀller cirkulÀr ekonomi (avfallshantering och foderproduktion). Efter ett snabbt besök skyndande gruppen vidare för att besöka andra forskargruppen och  fÄ en inblick i den breda och viktiga forskning som bedrivs pÄ SLU.

Kjell och MÀrta Beijers Stiftelse bildades 1974 genom en donation frÄn Kjell och MÀrta Beijer. Utöver vetenskaplig forskning och utbildning stödjer stiftelsen kultur, framför allt med anknytning till svensk design och heminredningstradition. Stiftelsen stÄr bland annat bakom Beijerinstitutet, ett av vÀrldens ledande forskningscentrum inom ekologisk ekonomi. Vilken bra dag det var och Cecilia fick mÄnga intressanta frÄgor och nÄgra av besökarna Àven provsmakade till och med vÄra torkade larver!

Studyvisit from Kjell och MĂ€rta Beijers Stiftelse

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Cecilia Lalander from Kretsloppsteknik welcomed visitors from the Kjell and MĂ€rta Beijers Stiftelse at SLU campus in Ultuna. In the spotlight was the latest project “5 ton fish on the counter” (see blogpost from 04. March https://blogg.slu.se/kretsloppsteknik/2021/03/04/red-containers-at-campus/), where feed for trout was produced from insect meal at Campus Ultuna.

The visit was a great opportunity to show the groupÂŽs strong competences and relevance in regards of circular economy (wastemanagement and feed production). After a quick visit, the group hurried on to visit other research groups and get an insight to the wide and important research conducted at SLU.

The Kjell and MĂ€rta Beijer Foundation was founded in 1974 through a donation from Kjell and MĂ€rta Beijer. In addition to scientific research and education, the foundation supports culture, above all in connection with Swedish design and home furnishing tradition. Among other things, the foundation is behind the Beijer Institute, one of the world’s leading research centers in ecological economics. It had been a great day and Cecilia received a lot of interesting questions and also witnessed some of the visitors testing our dried larvae first hand!

Our BSF project “5 ton grön fisk i disk” featured in Dagens nyheter

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FrĂ„n februari till maj 2021 producerade projektet “5 ton grön fisk i disk” (delfinansierat av Vinnova) 1,7 ton larvar pĂ„ en blandning av 10 ton grönsaks- och brödavfall. Grönsakerna kom frĂ„n  Sorunda Grönsakshallen medan brödet var Ă„tertaget bröd frĂ„n Fazer . Larverna producerades inte bara pĂ„ SLU campus utan blev Ă€ven vidareförĂ€dlade hĂ€r: efter torkning vid 60°C i 48 timmar pressades den torra larvar i en skruvpress för att separera frĂ„n proteinet frĂ„n fettet. Det avfettade proteinmjölet förvandlades sedan till fiskfoder till regnbĂ„gslax, som föddes upp av Älvdalslax i Dalarna.

Behandlingsresten, det sÄ kallade frasset, anvÀndes som jordförbÀttring pÄ en nÀrliggande studentledd permakulturodling.

 

Dagens nyheter hörde talas om projektet och kom och besökte oss. Jessica Ritzen följde Cecilia Lalander och Anders Kiessling genom de olika stadierna av proteinproduktionen till fem-ton-fisk-i-disk projektet. Följ lÀnken för att lÀsa hela artikeln hÀr.

Our BSF project “5 ton grön fisk i disk” featured in Dagens nyheter

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From February to May 2021, the project “5 ton grön fisk i disk” (partly financed by Vinnova) produced 1,7 tons of larvae on a mix of 10 tonnes vegetable and bread waste. The vegetables were discarded vegetable cuttings from

Sorunda Grönsakshallen and the bread was out-of-date Fazer bread from local supermarkets. The larv ae were not only produced at SLU campus but they were also further processed here: after drying at 60°C for 48 h, the dry larva were pressed in a screw press to separate the protein from the fat. The defatted protein meal was then turned into fish feed, containing many other locally sourced ingredients, for rainbow trout. The trout were grown by Älvdalslax in Dalarna.

The residue from the treatment, the frass, was used as soil amendment on the nearby student run permaculture garden. Dagens nyheter found out about this cool project and came to visit us. Jessica Ritzen followed Cecilia Lalander and Anders Kiessling through the different stages of the protein production for the 5 ton fish on the counter project. Read the full article here.

New publication from the urine dying group on the use of magnesium-doped alkaline substrates in the Chemical Engineering Journal

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In our latest paper, published in the Chemical Engineering Journal, we show how all the nitrogen in fresh human urine can be captured in the form of solid urine-based fertilisers.

Abstract: Recycling urine can reduce the flux of reactive nitrogen in the environment. This paper presents a novel approach to recover all N (Ntot) from urine, including ammonia (TAN; about 5% of Ntot), which is usually volatilised when alkalised urine is dehydrated. As analytical methods for measuring N have a standard deviation of at least 5%, real fresh urine was fortified with ammonia (urineN) or ammonia and phosphate (urineNP) so that TAN comprised 10% of Ntot. The urine was then added to different magnesium-based alkaline substrates (MgO, Mg(OH)2, MgCl2 + Mg(OH)2) and dried at 38 ˚C. Chemical speciation modelling suggested that, irrespective of the substrate, >98% of Ntot in urineNP was recovered and 86% of TAN was precipitated as struvite. Experimental results showed that < 90% of Ntot was recovered when urineNP was dried in MgO and Mg(OH)2, suggesting that no TAN was captured. However, all phosphorus and potassium and 93% (±5%) of Ntot and 30% of TAN were recovered when urineNP was dried in MgCl2 + Mg(OH)2, as the [Mg]:[NH4]:[PO4] molar ratio of 1.69:1.14:1.0 in urine favoured formation of struvite. Overall, this study demonstrated that all ammonia excreted in real fresh urine (unfortified, TAN < 5% Ntot) can be captured if urine is dried in substrates containing 3.7 g MgCl2·6H2O L−1 or 2.2 g MgSO4 L−1, but no calcium. Ammonia can also be captured if fresh urine is saturated with MgO or Mg(OH)2 with high reactivity (<60 s citric acid test). If the drying substrate has pH > 10 throughout the treatment, urease enzyme-catalysed degradation of urea to ammonia is prevented, resulting in complete recovery of all nutrients. The end-product is a solid fertiliser containing 10–11% nitrogen, 1–2% phosphorus and 2–3% potassium.

Continue reading New publication from the urine dying group on the use of magnesium-doped alkaline substrates in the Chemical Engineering Journal

Poor awareness and attitudes to sanitation servicing can impede China’s Rural Toilet Revolution: Evidence from Western China

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Check out our new publication following up on China’s nationwide sanitation campaign, “the toilet revolution” in the journal, Science of the Total Environment.

Abstract: The ongoing Toilet Revolution in China offers an opportunity to improve sanitation in rural areas by introducing new approaches, such as urine source separation, that can contribute to achieving SDG6. However, few studies have systematically assessed the social acceptability of managing human excreta collected in new sanitation systems. Therefore, in this study we performed face-to-face interviews with 414 local residents from 13 villages across three provinces in western China, to analyze the current situation and attitudes to possible changes in the rural sanitation service chain. We found that the sanitation chain was predominantly pit latrine-based, with 86.2% of households surveyed collecting their excreta in a simple pit, 82% manually emptying their pits, and 80.2% reusing excreta in agriculture without adequate pre-treatment. A majority (72%) of the households had a generally positive attitude to production of human excreta-derived fertilizer, but only 24% agreed that urine and feces should be collected separately. Multivariate logistic regression indicated that three factors (level of education, number of permanent household residents, perceived social acceptability) significantly influenced respondents’ attitudes to reuse of excreta, although only perceived social acceptability had a high strength of association. Overall, our survey revealed that rural households often misuse toilet systems, fail to comply with government-specified sanitation guidelines, have low awareness of alternative solutions, and are over-reliant on the government to fix problems in the service chain. Thus while new sanitation technologies should be developed and implemented, information campaigns that encourage rural households to manage their excreta safely are also important.

Continue reading Poor awareness and attitudes to sanitation servicing can impede China’s Rural Toilet Revolution: Evidence from Western China

Advertisement for MSc thesis: To source separate or to annamox? Can we mainstream two disruptive innovations in wastewater treatment in parallel?

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Proposed Title: To source separate or to annamox? Can we mainstream two disruptive innovations in wastewater treatment in parallel?

Credits: 30 credits; Level: Advanced
Subject: Technology, Environmental Science or Sustainable Development
Start: January 2022 or later

Two of the most exciting and potentially disruptive innovations that are being tested in the field of wastewater treatment are:

  • Source Separation, where different fractions of household wastewater (urine, faeces/brownwater, greywater) are separately collected at source and treated differently to recover and recycle resources (fertilizers like urea and struvite, water, energy, 
)
  • Annamox, oranaerobic ammonium oxidation, a naturally occurring microbial process which can be applied to remove nitrogen at centralised wastewater treatment plants by directly converting ammonia and nitrite to nitrogen gas.

Source-separation calls for distributed/decentralized treatment of wastewater and emphasizes the recovery of nutrients and resources. Annamox on the other hand calls for an upgrade on the existing biological nitrogen removal processes at centralized wastewater treatment plants. Both these innovations are currently being mainstreamed but little is known about –

  1. Whether these processes can complement each other, and if so, when? at what scale?
  2. In which context and settings are each of these innovations better suited?
  3. The overall energy requirements for treating wastewater through both processes, especially from a life-cycle perspective. e.g., annamox reduces the energy demand for aeration and nitrogen removal but source separation and nutrient recycling reduces the need to manufacture synthetic ammonia-based fertilizers (Haber Bosch nitrogen)
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