Hi Everyone,
I work as the project manager for team Sanitation NoW! (No Water, No Waste, No Watts), which is a collaboration between the University of Toronto, University of Western Ontario, University of Queensland.

This was an interesting discussion and great to be a part of. In terms of our user interface... The paramount concern we have is ensuring the below the box technology and process work. We are building a domestic waste treatment plant, not just a toilet. Essentially doing for toilets what cell phones did for land lines. There are many challenges associated with this and as such our focus has been on mitigating these. In the slides provided you can see the shell of our toilet and over the course of the next month or two we will have more designed and built and can share the details of this part of our project as they emerge. If you have any other questions please don't hesitate to post a reply.

Cheers,

Steve


Note by moderator (EvM): for more in-depth discussions about the project of Yu-Ling and Steve, please post in this separate thread about this project:
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/105-pr...-and-bangladesh#4123

Hi Chris
Yes the toilet interfaces were not described in 3 of the presentations. Will try to get the authors to respond to this question. And we'll try to get an answer from EAWAG on the volume of the faecal cassette.

The interesting thing about this research is the process and function that is being developed. The hardware can take different forms depending on the level of affordability. The criteria for these grants was to keep to 5 cents per user per day as the capital and running costs. But this can go much lower if local materials are used for at least part of the equipment. Onsite single or grouped systems can be more flexible that way and made to perform to the most stringent treatment and reuse standards.

re the webinar technology - things work well as long as the participants stick with performing sound equipment they know how to use. Also a minimum amount of bandwidth is necessary. We had some bad luck with the internet connection with Kerala. The overlapping voices is an artifact which turned up in the online editing process and nothing that actually occurred in realtime. Adobe Connect does have a chat and hand sign function but once things are set up these are not normally necessary.

Streaming technology is another option that can also allow broader live participation but would require more preparation time and technicians.

Once we get a routine for this we can hold such recorded discussions much more often. Hope you and others will be signing up!

Best wishes
--Arno


Note be moderator (EvM): Further technical discussions on the different grants are being continued in the respective threads of the grants. For links to the four grants, see above in Arno's post from 13 Sept.

Hi,

Thank you for this great webinar. Congratulations to all for their advances.

Except for the Blue Diversion, we are left wondering what the user interface looks like down inside. Maybe this is due to proprietary concerns, but it would be great to see more ... and any user in the public trials could take photos anyway.

It would also be great to see what the Blue Diversion looks like at the users steps on the pedal ... and what the user can see as he or she looks down the poop hole.

The self-sealing container for feces is impressive, but it seems very small. What happens if it is used too many times before changing the container? Is there a signal that it is full and needs to be changed? How much does a full one weigh? Might it be a good idea to make it larger?

Did I hear right that chlorine is used to finish the treatment of the wash water in the Blue Diversion's wall? With the constant recycling, this would seem to select for chlorine-resistant strains of microbes that could be dangerous for the users. It would seem to be better to have a living and evolving "microbiome" in the wall, instead of depending on chemicals. This recycling is great for water conservation, but if I were a user I would prefer to "waste" a little water, which could irrigate and fertilize useful plants, distributed under the soil.

A couple of technical suggestions for this type of Webinar:
1) There were some moments in which 2 persons spoke at the same time and neither could be understood. Is it possible for the moderator to have to click on a participant to let them speak?
2) It would be great for the various presenters to be able to type into a live chat whenever they like so they can comment and ask questions without interrupting the audio. This would enrich the discussion.

I look forward to seeing more on all these designs.

Best wishes,
Chris Canaday

The following four grants were discussed in this second expert chat (overall topic: “Innovation in toilet designs and waste treatment technologies”) yesterday which we recorded for you:



(1)
Title of grant: The Toronto Toilet
Subtitle: Unit operations approach for rapid disinfection of human waste based on drying/smoldering of solid and sand filtration/uv disinfection of liquid waste.
Name of lead organization: University of Toronto
Primary contact at lead organization: Yu-Ling Cheng (PI) and Stephen Sauder (PM)
Grantee location: Toronto, Canada; London, Canada; Brisbane, Australia; Dhaka, Bangladesh
Developing country where the research is being or will be tested: Field trials in Bangladesh over the course of 2013 in three locations (Urban Slum and two Rural Villages outside of Dhaka)

Short presentation:



Link to thread on discussion forum about this grant: forum.susana.org/forum/categories/105-pr...o-usa-and-bangladesh

(2)
Title of grant: Self Sustained eToilet with Sewage Treatment
Subtitle: Globally acceptable, water-conserving, hygienic and self-sustaining public toilets
Name of lead organization: Eram Scientific Solutions
Primary contact at lead organization: Bincy Baby and Ria John
Grantee location: Trivandrum, Kerala, India
Developing country where the research is being or will be tested: India



Short presentation:



Link to thread on discussion forum about this grant: forum.susana.org/forum/categories/105-pr...ram-scientific-india

(3)
Title of grant: Diversion for safe sanitation
Subtitl: Flushable urine-diverting dry toilet with on-site wash water recycling embedded in a concept of transport logistics and treatment
Name of lead organization: Eawag (Switzerland) in cooperation with EOOS (Austria)
Primary contact at lead organization: Tove Larsen
Grantee location: Duebendorf, Switzerland
Developing country where the research is being tested: Uganda in 2013 and 2014



Short presentation:



Link to thread on discussion forum about this grant: forum.susana.org/forum/categories/106-us...tzerland-and-austria

(4)
Title of grant: Effective Sewage Sanitation with Low CO2 Footprint
Name of lead organisation: Duke University
Grantee location: Durham, North Carolina, USA
Primary contact at lead organisation: Aaron Forbis-Stokes
Developing country where the research is being tested: Kenya (Eldoret)



Short presentation:



Link to thread on discussion forum about this grant: forum.susana.org/forum/categories/105-pr...m-north-carolina-usa