Hi Guys, have been following this discussion for a while now. We have a plant that we designed specifically for the processing of human waste. The idea is to heat the product up sufficiently to kill off the pathogens, etc, and have an output product that can be used as a ground conditioner (fertilizer). You may want to have a look at our website. Also, I am attaching a brochure here.
The machine can be built in various sizes, to accommodate specific through put, and with variable MIR's, depending on the water content of the product. For rural use, the machine is built inside a container (easier to transport, and lock up at night) and comes complete with a second container which houses the diesel / petrol generator, and electrical controls. Finally, it's a South African invention, built in South Africa, for African conditions! Low maintenance costs, easy to run, and the out put can be sold to defray some of the costs. In optimum conditions ( with the right throughput) the operation can be run at a profit!

Chris,
Thanks for picking up on that and apologies for the slow reply. Definitely not hitting 175C, that should be read as 175 F, which you are right in saying it is plenty hot to kill off pathogens. Any higher, however, and you start killing off the microorganisms that you need to have around.
In terms of marketing compost, Dominic, I'm sure you are aware of the market analysis done in Ghana by IWMI, who are selling their compost in bulk to companies involved in housing/landscape projects where the risks associated with using compost is extremely low. Perhaps you are working with this group?
Thanks for putting those resources up, I will take a look at them.

Nick

Hi Christoph,

The study you attached to posting 511 is an example of the type of methodology that I suggest we try to steer away from, as it depends on centrifuges and specialized chemicals (which are likely expensive, hard to get, and who knows what effect they would have on the environment, when made and when disposed of). Plus, that methodology analyzes only a small (50 g) sample. I suggest we develop a simple, accessible methodology that can be done to a larger sample (1 kg?) wherever there is a microscope (for example, malaria stations in the jungle). It may involve flotation overnight, instead of using the centrifuge. The idea of doing a large sample is so that we can mix a large batch of decomposed feces, test a kilogram sample, and make an acceptable determination of the presence or absence of Helminth eggs in it.

Maybe centrifuges are common enough to be included, but I would especially like to avoid the specialized chemical reagents.

Forum members at universities, please consider passing on this idea to students looking for a project.

NICK, you said the fecal compost was up to 175 degrees Celsius for extended periods. That would be much more than sufficient, since it is above the boiling point, but is that possible? 75 C would apparently be enough. Do you mean 175 Fahrenheit?

Best wishes,
Chris Canaday

To all of you who communicated on this topic, go look at this as an option. There is a way to make "soil conditioner" out of human waste, and make a return on the investment. And, the bigger the volume at source, the better the return.
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/53-fae...rd?limit=12&start=12

Hi Chris,
just in case. Did you forget our discussion ?
The study is attached in post #511 or have you been after another study?
Yours
Christoph

Dear Nick,

These are key issues.

I believe we need to refine a more appropriate protocol for testing for Ascaris eggs in decomposed feces, without the need for expensive equipment (beyond a microscope) or specialized chemicals. I have read in a World Health Organization publication (Manual de Técnicas Básicas para un Laboratorio de Salud. 1983) about a technique to concentrate Ascaris eggs via floating in a saturated salt solution. The bottle is filled to the very top and a microscope slide (or cover slip) is placed on top of it, such that the eggs float up and stick to the slide for subsequent observation under the microscope. I would suggest that a large sample of decomposed feces (1 kg?) could be mixed with saturated salt solution, strained through a tea strainer, and filled into a 3-liter CocaCola bottle for this procedure. This should give a fairly definitive answer to the question of presence or absence of Ascaris eggs, at low cost and with minimal tiem at the microscope. (Anyone looking for a thesis?)

I also suggest that small envelopes of plastic mesh containing feces known to have Ascaris could be dropped periodically into the toilets, for analysis at the end of the process. This would reduce or eliminate the need to concentrate the Ascaris eggs.

Sale of decomposed feces will always have a stigma attached, as the general public has an erroneous mindset that "once feces, always feces". It may be more recommendable for the same organization that is safely processing the feces to apply it in agriculture and then SELL THE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES, thus overcoming this cultural barrier. (At most, people are likely to only ask if the produce was fertilized with chemicals.)

Optimally, this could be done by the users themselves (or a local microenterprise), in their same neighborhood, thus avoiding the need for trucking things from one place to another.

Furthermore, as I have mentioned on this forum, decomposed feces are an excellent cover material for fresh feces (with fewer problems with smell and flies; anyone looking for a microbiology thesis?). The volume of cover material needed is similar to the volume of processed feces, since the feces themselves mostly disintegrate, thus this reuse can largely eliminate the concern for open application of processed feces. If the users have lingering doubts about the safety of this material, this would give them an added incentive to wash their hands, which we want them to do anyway.

Is the publication about Ascaris eggs in double-chambered UDDT compost after years available on the internet?

175 degrees C for extended periods seems much more than sufficient. Do you mean 175 Fahrenheit? 175 Celsius is much above the boiling point.

I also think solarization (e.g., sanivation.org) is an important option for us to explore.

I look forward to continuing this conversation.

Best wishes,
Chris Canaday

Dear Nick,

Our project is not finished yet. But let me indicate some experienced projects to you we considered interesting for marketing compost/excreta

Waste concern Bangladesh, market over 500 t compost per month (no human excreta sources)
-Rahman, H. (2011). Waste Concern : A Decentralized Community Based Composting Through Public-Private-Community Partnership., GIM Case Study No. B102. New York: United Nations Development Programme.
-Rytz, I. (2001). Assessment of a decentralised composting scheme in Dhaka, Bangladesh - -Technical, operational, organisational and financial aspects. Duebendorf, Switzerland: EAWAG/SANDEC & Waste Concern

Ecosan UE (Crepa) Burkina Faso that has created demand for their urine fertilizer:
-Dagerskog, L., Coulibaly, C. and Ouandaogo, I. (2010). The emerging market of treated human excreta in Ouagadougou. Urban Agriculture Magazine, 23, 45-48.

Nawacom Kenya and their organic fertilizer Mazingira from animal- and plant waste:
-several sources, but look also at Mewarema Kenya for this case:
Grambauer, F. (2010). Community-based, resources-oriented management of separated human waste in peri-urban areas in Nakuru, Kenya. Sustainable Sanitation Practice, Sanitation as a Business(5), 10-15

I can imagine that revenue streams from just the compost cannot maintain the project, good luck with finding new revenue streams

Just wanted to jump in here. I work for SOIL here in Haiti and the reason we have been slow to market the composted feces that we continue to produce is that we want to make sure that they are indeed pathogen-free. I'd be curious as to how others are ensuring that what they are collecting/producing is not posing a health risk to others.

We attempted double-vault UD toilets in the past but have moved to a drum system with off-site thermophilic composting systems since 2010 after having very mixed results from the first double-vault toilets we had installed. This, coupled with more recent news that ascaris is being found 3-5 years after being sealed in vaults in South Africa, has lead to SOIL recommending that any off-site reuse of feces from double-vault toilets go through a secondary "hot" composting process.

Our thermophilic composting system works really well, maintaining temperatures up to 175C for extended periods of time, but we still are wary of selling or distributing any composted feces until we can actually prove that ascaris and other pathogens are being killed off within each area of our piles. Initial results from a collaboration with the CDC this year show that the ascaris die-off parallels the e. coli die-off, which is great news, but we are waiting for the final results over the next few weeks.

SOIL's original idea was to be able to cover our costs with the selling of the compost, but we quickly found that this would not come close to covering costs. I strongly believe that there needs to be a cost to the user. Perhaps in larger systems the fees from wealthier customers could be used to partially subsidize the services for lower-income areas, but there should always be a price.

We are currently working on a household model that has users in a lower-income urban area paying ~3USD/mo for a service that collects the faeces, transports to a compost site for treatment, and then provides clean buckets with cover material.

If there are other documents out there about marketing feces/compost, myself and the rest of the SOIL team would be interested in taking a look. Thanks

Nick

Dear all,

let me quickly summarize some of our findings so far.

The Crepa case project indeed a very interesting case for our project, as urine and faeces are sold to external buyers.
The SOIL foundation Haiti case offered a lot of information on the market research in order to sell soon, but no clear indication of current stage. They also involve new ways to collect the waste resource

In general it seems as if a lot of projects intend to market soon, but still struggle with a lack of actual demand, independent of nutritional values (such as Mewarema/ROSA in Kenya)

I will keep you updated once more, now we focus on the statutory framework of the projects. Until then, best regards,

Dominic

Dear all,

first of all thanks Marijn for your quick response.

Working on the same project as Dominic, I am wondering how to create a legal overview of EcoSan in Accra, Ghana.

Our commissioner wants to market a fertilizer/compost (specifics aren't clear yet) in this area. And we try to set up a framework/overview for present (and possible future) legislation.

Untill now we have indicated the guidelines/rules of WHO 2006, IFOAM 2005, EPA (?) to be important. We did find other guidelines by EcoSanRes, FAO etc...

However we are looking for a way to select the most relevant regulatory institutions in a logical - preferably academically sound - manner.

Any ideas how to tackle this problem?

Regards

Henric

Dear Dominic,

To the best of my knowledge there are no labels as yet.

Some things that come to mind as interesting for you:

Some positive news is that IFOAM (on of the leading organic agriculture platforms) is starting to relax its regulations with regard to himan excreta somewhat. there is a message about this somewhere on this forum.

You could look at the ork that SOIL foundation did in Haiti, I think they are one of the few organizations I know off successfully marketing composted human feces.

Lastely, there are the case studies about CREPA project in Burkina Faso.


regards

Marijn Zandee

Dear all,

I currently support a very small project in the Netherlands, which collects knowledge on how to market faeces and market waste as fertilizer in West/East Africa. In this regard I came by the forum and this discussion. Now I read that there is no market or any labels. But the last reply was from 2011, so I was hoping for news in this matter.

-Does anybody know of a label under construction?
-Or in best case does anybody know a fertilizer product from faeces which is marketed already and could be researched online?

Clues and recommodations are very welcome. kind regards,

Dominic