Prithvi Simha, Jenna Senecal, and Björn Vinnerås just returned after spending a week in Durban, South Africa. We travelled there to present our novel sanitation technology called alkaline urine dehydration to several potential collaborators, and to see if the technology could fit into the local context. We met with sanitation experts from the Pollution Research Group at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the eThekwini Municipality, and Envirosan (a toilet manufacturer based in Durban). The trip was extremely fruitful with a positive response from all experts about our technology. We even brought back with us two new urine-diverting toilets to test our system with (thank you Envirosan!). Our next step will be to return to Durban with a pilot-scale urine drying system that the Pollution Research Group will test at their research facility. Following this, drying units will also be tested in people’s homes at the eThekwini municipality. A big thank you to Chris Buckley for co-ordinating the trip & to the NJ Committee on Global Affairs for the financial assistance.
SLU EnviroSan Loot; PC: Chris Buckley
Blog from the Environmental Engineering Research Group at SLU