Blog from the Environmental Engineering Research Group at SLU
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.
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.
Our former intern, Chinmoy Deb from India, who came to SLU last year for his Bachelorâs thesis on Urine Drying, has successfully received his Bachelorâs degree in Chemical Engineering. Currently, Chinmoy has started his Masterâs program in âSoil, Water and Environmentâ at SLU and has been recruited as a member of our group. During his bachelorsâ 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.
Between 8th and 12th September, Björn and Prithvi were in Venice to take part in the International Water Association‘s 3rd Resource Recovery Conference in Venice. Prithvi had an oral presentation where he talked about the pilot testing of the alkaline urine dehydration technology at Pori Brigade in Finland. At the conference, Prithvi also co-chaired the session on urine valorisation and water reuse, as a Young Water Professional. Since we were shortlisted for the IWA Resource Recovery Award, we also had a poster presentation about Sanitation360 AB, the group’s spin-off company implementing urine dehydration technology.
Earlier today, Prof. HĂ„kan Jönsson, Pernilla TidĂ„ker, and Prithvi Simha coordinated a student (from the Sustainable Food Systems master’s program at SLU) visit to a garden and a house owned by HĂ„kan, who has designed a local system where most of the plant nutrients from the household are recycled back to the garden and used as fertilizer. For a very long time HĂ„kan has implemented source separation in his own house and uses all source-separated urine and kitchen compost as fertilizer in his garden, where he grows vegetables and berry bushes. During the visit, the students saw how a small-scale source separation systems can look like and discussed options and challenges for future upscaling.
Several members of the group were present at the 28th annual meeting of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance in Stockholm, prior to the world water week. On the sidelines of the meeting, we also got to have a great first meeting with Gustavo Heredia, the chairman of the Board of Directors of the AGUATUYA Foundation in Bolivia. Sanitation360, our group’s university start-up that plans to implement the urine dehydration technology is in discussions with AGUATUYA to treat from urine-diverting toilets in El Alto, Bolivia.
Earlier today, we were happy to welcome a group of 20 delegates from the Finnish Water and Wastewater Association interested in on-site sanitation systems. From the group, Prithvi presented the urine drying technology. During the seminar, there were several presentations from organisations outside the university, e.g. VA-Guiden and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management.
During the last week, group members Prithvi Simha and Giulio Zorzetto were in Tampere, Finland where they installed a new urine dehydrator module that is being pilot tested in the Hiedanranta neighbourhood of the city of Tampere. The treatment module was constructed at SLU, transported to Finland, reasssembled at TAMK, and finally installed at the basement of the Lielahti Manor house. Urine from two different toilets in the manor house, which itself is undergoing renovation, is planned to be diverted to this treatment system over the coming week. This installation, once in operation, has the potential to open up a new avenue for local collection and treatment of urine in urban settings.
The three month long urine drying pilot installation at the Pori Birgade in SĂ€kylĂ€, Finland was dismantled last week, bringing to an end the first field demonstration of our technology. As you’ll recall from our previous blogs, we integrated a urine dehydration module with capacity of treating 40 L urine/day/m2 into an existing, mobile dry sanitation system – the Biomaja toilet. During this pilot, we have been collecting samples of the end-product/fertiliser (see picture below), monitoring various physico-chemical properties as well as energy consumption of the treatment module. Over the coming months, we will be analysing the collected samples, along with our partners in Finland. While the module received less urine than its design capacity, it functioned smoothly throughout the pilot period.
Following the successful wrap up of the MORTTI-project that piloted the group’s urine drying technology in field conditions for the first time, we are back in Finland once again this week. This time around, we will be constructing, installing, and integrating a urine dehydrator with – a dry urinal and a urine-diverting flush toilet. The system is scheduled to be installed at the Lielahti Manor in the Hiedanranta neighbourhood of the city of Tampere, and is designed to treat nearly 25 L of fresh urine/day for a period of 3 months. The project is being carried out by our group and Sanitation360, the group’s university-based startup company working with urine dehydration. Our partners in this project include the City of Tampere, Tampere University of Applied Sciences, and the Finnish Environment Institute. More updates to follow!