Greetings Dinesh
Tina Velkushanova (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) has been working on variants of the Delhi Fair faeces recipe for people with different needs. I suggest you contact her as we are able to work with fresh faeces in our laboratory and thus could undertake side by side tests with faeces and stimulant.

Alternatively you could send a student to work in our lab with your actual equipment. See our web site for details about working in Durban
(prg.ukzn.ac.za/visiting-researchers/info...visiting-researchers)

Chris Buckley
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Pollution Research Group
UKZN

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Note by moderators: This post was made by a former user with the login name ChrisBuckley who is no longer a member of this discussion forum.

A good question. I agree with you. This was also raised by the technical team monitoring the project. We have moved away from mashed potatoes to a more closer specification for solid waste that was used in the previous RTTC fair supplied by Unilever. We have put together the ingredients as listed in the recipe & running the tests afresh to ensure the results are satisfactory. There will some tweaking needed to meet the acceptance criteria.

Regards Dinesh

Dear Sarah, Thanks for getting back with your questions. The power for the toilet seat is going to be low power though we did try all permutations & combinations of different power based transducers to check the performance. As of now the transducers can be driven from a stored power source & since we operate in burst mode there is quite a bit of saving during the "off" times of the transducers. Now about the acoustic noise....this is more to do with the type of drivers that we were using so this has been resolved & there is no audible hum that can be heard....I would say as we refine the parameters & optimize the parts, we will good to go on both the issues that you listed. Again appreciate your thoughts

Best Regards Dinesh

Thanks for sharing. Did you ever do a test with real fecal waste also? I doesn't seem like mashed potatoes are a particularly well suited substitute for feces sticking to the side of a toilet bowl

Hi Dinesh,
Congratulations on your results, it looks like an innovative technology. Reading about your project brought a few questions to mind. I'm wondering if his approach requires a lot of power, do you think there is a risk that providing power for the ultrasound toilet would be challenging?
I'm also curious about the sound that the toilet makes. Since many people would not be accustomed to the noise, do you think that people will be bothered by the sound that the toilet makes. Maybe it is beyond your proof of concept study, but I wonder how it could be dealt with.
Best regards,
Sarah

Updated results of the initial experiments on a new toilet seat design undertaken using Ultrasound transducers to reduce wash water.

Hi Alison,
Thanks for the response. At the moment we are experimenting to decide on the optimum parameters for ultrasound transmission. Will share some preliminary results with you soon...

Regards

Dinesh

Hi Dinesh,

Thanks so much for sharing your project here. Can you tell me some more about your process of increasing settling using ultrasound? We are also trying to settle solids rapidly in our Nano Membrane Toilet so surely have a lot to learn from you!

Many thanks

Alison

This is my first post on the proof of concept towards a novel way of trying to reduce wash water use and accelerate waste settling time. We have commenced work and will post the progress with lot more details in weeks to come.
Please find basic information about the project in the attached or copied below.

Dinesh Bindiganavale
Pradin Technologies


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• Title of grant: Eco-Toilet
• Subtitle (more descriptive title): An economical and sustainable self-contained toilet solution
• Name of lead organization: Pradin Technologies Pvt Ltd
• Primary contact at lead organization: Dinesh Bindiganavale
• Grantee location: Bangalore, India
• Developing country where the research is being or will be tested: India
• Start and end date: November 2014 – October 2015
• Grant type: Reinvent the Toilet Challenge India *
• Funding for this research currently ongoing (yes/no): The formal project kick-off is on 5th Nov 2014

• Short description of the project: The project plan involves a concept prototype development to demonstrate the reduction of wash water use and accelerate waste settling time by using Ultrasound to reduce wash water use and accelerate waste settling time
• Goal(s): To build two real size fully functional concept prototypes of the proposed toilet system
• Objectives: To demonstrate the reduction in wash water use and accelerate waste settling time using Ultrasound


• Research or implementation partners: As of now it is Pradin. We are in dialogue with several SMEs for potential collaboration
• Links, further readings – results to date: The project kick-off is on 5th November 2014
• Current state of affairs: System architecture WIP
• Biggest successes so far: A concept paper design in place and a provisional patent 195/CHE/2014 application filed with India patent office
• Main challenges / frustration: Completing design of experiments of the concept and delivering two working prototypes in a short span of 12 months

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Note by moderator (EvM):

* The total amount of the RTTC India grant is $1,068,908, which is spread over six research projects, one of them is this one (see also: www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quic...s/2013/05/OPP1055862)

Further information about the RTTC India grant scheme is also available here on the forum:
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/139-gr...nda-gates-foundation