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.
Tag: Source-separating sanitation systems
Global Webinar: Sanitation and Employment World Toilet Day 2019
“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/
SLU has its own urine-diverting flush toilet!
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.
Anastasija Vasiljev interning with the urine drying project
My name is Anastasija Vasiljev. I am a Serbian girl finishing my environmental engineering bachelor’s at South-Eastern University of Applied Sciences in Finland. I only have an internship and a thesis left to complete, before I am fully done with my program. At SLU, I will be working as a part of the urine drying research team. My responsibilities are to aid in figuring out how to minimize the nitrogen losses during urine drying process, performing experiments to determine the most efficient media for nitrogen capture. I will stay and be a part of the team until the end of January next year!
Chea Eliyan joins Kretsloppsteknik as a PhD student
I am Chea Eliyan, and I recently joined the Environmental Engineering Research Group of the Department of Energy and Technology, SLU, in a sandwich mode Ph.D. program. As part of this program, I will spend half the time here at SLU and another 50% time at my home country, Cambodia at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP). The SIDA-RUPP bilateral program fully supports this study as well as RUPP’s research capacity development.
Tristan Martin, PhD Student from INRA at Kretsloppsteknik
My name is Tristan Martin and I’m a PhD student from France. I’m working at the French National institute for agricultural research on the agronomic valorization of urine in France and the associated environmental impacts of this valorization. My work in France consists mainly in doing agronomical experiments with different urine based fertilizers to compare their agronomical efficiencies (yields, NH3 volatilization, N2O emissions …). I will be there in Uppsala for 3 month to work on the second part of my PhD which aims to evaluate the impacts of the whole valorization chains (treatment, transport …) using life cycle assessment methodology.
Xiaoqin Zhou on research exchange at SLU from USTB
Dr. Xiaoqin Zhou, Assistant Professor of University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB) is on a three week research exchange at Kretsloppsteknik. Yesterday, at a lunch seminar organised by the group, Xiaoqin presented about USTB and her own research activities. Specifically, she talked baout “toilet revolution” in rural China and how the country is currently in the process of upgrading its rural sanitation infrastructure. The “toilet revolution” campaign was launched by the Chinese central government since 2015 to improve the sanitary conditions in Mainland China. Thereafter, several campaigns have been launced in recent years such as“ National Tourism Reinvent Toilet Campaign” and “new toilet for rural toilet system Campaign” led by China National Tourism Administration (CNTA ), now called as Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China, and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
Social aspects of recycling household wastes: perspectives from Jordan
We were at the Hashemite University in Jordan last week, teaching a group of young students how we can safely recycle different household waste fractions. As part of this week-long course, we organised a day of interactive seminars and a role playing game to improve awareness among the students about the psychology, decision making, and socio-technical aspects of recycling waste.
Teaching students in Jordan about safe nutrient recycling
This week, we (Sahar Dalahmeh, Mikael Pell, Annika Nordin, Cecilia Lalander, and Prithvi Simha) are in Jordan, conducting a 1-week course on recycling of various household waste fractions. The course is given at the Hashemite University, located about 50 km away from the capital city Amman. A group of about 20 very enthusiastic and inquistive students are learning about various topics such as wastewater microbiology, hygienisation, urine diversion and dehydration, vermi- and black soldier fly composting, on-site wastweater treatment, etc.
Chinmoy Deb joins the Urine Drying Project
Our former intern, Chinmoy Deb from India, who came to SLU last year for his Bachelor’s thesis on Urine Drying, has successfully received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering. Currently, Chinmoy has started his Master’s program in “Soil, Water and Environment” at SLU and has been recruited as a member of our group. During his bachelors’ program, back in India, he had worked with urine for nutrient and pharmaceutical removal. With a keen to connect the nexus of sanitation, hygiene and agriculture, he has joined the group to continue his research on the recovery of plant essential nutrients by means of urine drying technology.