Thanks for your kind help
Best regards

Dear all,

Thank you for your feedback.

This is the link of the Online Toilet Expo. 
mp.weixin.qq.com/s/8bdOXGJGK8oItlOtIc7bqA
It is a Chinese WeChat video conference room. The webpage gives synopses to all the the keynote speakers and their topics. You can use Google translate to get the contents translated for you if you don't have a translator.

These days, we are talking about the feasibility of applying the human wastes to the crops. Some places even advocate to lift the wastewater release restrictions to retain the rich nutrition values for the crops. The toilets, as collecting and storing units, are expected to function as the intermediate stations for this purpose.

Some suggest the systems should separate the human wastes from the neutral water. The toilet is the place to treat the human wastes. Only the grey water should be directed to the treatment plants. Without black water, the grey water is easy to handle.
 
Some recommend the water saving vacuum toilets. They even suggest replacement of the drainage systems by vacuum pipes. One company even won the bid of replacing the existing public toilets in Beijing by vacuum systems.

Others advocate the values of the Chinese traditional agriculture and call for the resurgence of biogas generators, characteristic of the Chinese countryside in the last century. With biogas generators available in the communities, people can store their toilet contents along with the kitchen wastes in them and recycle the wastes to make fertilizer.

I am following up the discussion now.

Hope the webpage is worth for you.

Best regards,

Sam Shan

Hi, do you have any link or website for that online Expo?, is there any way for re-listening  the webinars? Thanks!

Dear Harry and Elisabeth,

I did some research on this market and asked my friends in this sector for help, and now I can give you a scenario of the foam toilets even if some dimensions remain unknown.

Foam-blocking eco-toilets use foam to cover the hole in the toilet bowl to prevent odor discharging. The human wastes slip down through the hole to the container or portable pail, which is replaced by the maintenance staffs.    The technology is not new. It was invented by a Korean company years ago. Many companies in China apply this technology to the rural toilet retrofitting. It goes with squatting toilets well.   Many companies also use this technology to public toilet construction. These public toilets don’t connect the sewage systems and require no flushing water. However, hand washing water should be provided.   An automatic infrared sensor can keep the foam always at a certain height, which forms a strong sealer to the pipe connecting to the feces chamber. Besides, the foam lubricates the pipe and helps the wastes slip down.   Advantages: Water and electricity saving.  No water. No more than 4 kWh per day.  No purification tanks and sewage treatment facilities. Low maintenance cost. Foaming agent is added once a month, daily cost 2 RMB convenient installation. Single unit, modular or knock-down designs. A built-in electric heater ensures the foam generator to work in cold winter. The foam is environmentally friendly. Service life over15 years.

As for the online Expo or webinar, it lasted 8 days and about 8 people made keynote speeches, among whom the chairman of the World Toilet Organization Mr. Jack Sim delivered a talk on COVID-19 and Post-pandemic Toilets. It was the main theme.

Another new topic is the vacuum toilets for the rural residents. According to the speaker, the Chinese Toilet Revolution is faced with some challenges. One is many rural households have installed flushing toilets. As there is no wastewater treatment plants available in the countryside, and the septic tanks have poor quality, small capacity and leakage problems, the ground water system is still contaminated. The vacuum toilets, as they use small quantity of water, might be a solution. Some pilot projects started around Beijing and in the north with good effect. urine and manure are composted and applied to farmland as fertilizer, which is encouraged by the Ministry of Agriculture of the country.

Best regards,

Sam Shan

Yes. I would love to know more about this foam generator toilet. 

Hi Sam,
Do you have some photos of those Chinese foam toilets? It sounds like they are a different design to the "foam flushing composting toilet" that I had linked to.

Also, you mentioned:

There is an online Toilet Expo on May 8, 2020 in China. Many toilet manufacturers  are going to show their products in an online Expo group and inventors will present their design ideas in an online conference room. 

Could you tell us more about that? Is there a website link? Any new developments that we should know about? Perhaps you could start a new thread for that. I feel like we still have so few Chinese contributors here on this forum and we probably miss out on a lot of information from your country. So thank you for being here and sharing!

Regards,
Elisabeth

Hi Elisabeth,

Thank you for your valuable resources on foam toilets. 

The foam toilets in China are well recognized as a kind of eco-toilets, as they don't use much water to keep the toilets free from odor and clean. As far as I know,  the foam is used to cover the hole of the toilet bowl leading to the excrete boxes.  The foam is generated by a small device. It is not moving or flushing.  Human wastes fall through the foam to the bottoms of the compost chamber or portable containers. 

From Carol Steinfeld and you, I know many companies in different countries have adopted the similar technology in the toilets. I was told a company in China makes foam toilets for the extremely cold areas, say, 20 degrees below zero Celsius. 

The foam flushing toilet sounds interesting. I look forward to learning more about the mechanism.

Best regards,
Sam Shan

This is the first time I have heard about a "foam toilet". I did a quick Google search:

It came up with this video:



It says "Ladies & gents, we present to you the foam toilet. It uses 99.6% less water than standard toilets! Discover more green innovation with a tour at the Bullitt Center in Seattle, the greenest office building in the world!"

I also found this:
"Foam-Flush" toilets look and function much like conventional toilets. Using a mixture of biocompatible soap and water, the foam-flush toilet moves waste through a conventional 4" pipe to the composting tank below. The foam mixture cleans the toilet bowl with every flush but uses only about 3 oz. of water, making it fully compatible with the composting process. Since the foam flush is using water to carry the waste, it is possible to have it offset from the compost system at up to 45 degrees, making the design much like it would be for a conventional toilet system.  Clivus Multrum  makes foam-flush toilets."
www.treehugger.com/bathroom-design/foam-flush-toilets.html

Is that what we are talking about in this thread? Here I was thinking I knew all possible toilet types.  

Regards,
Elisabeth

There is a foam toilet imported to North America that used to be called the Nepon foam-flush. 
We sold a few in the late 1990s and early 2000s. My coauthor had one installed at his house and we installed them with composting toilets. 
I'm not sure what the brand is called today. It was made in Korea.

Carol Steinfeld

Hi Harry,

Thank you very much for your interest in the foam toilet.
Mr. Wu Hao is the president of Beijing Lanjieshi Technology Development Co., Ltd.
Below is the company's website. His email is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. www.lanjieshi.com   
You can contact him directly (his English is not good), or just write to me. My email address is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

All the Best,
Sam Shan

Sam
This foam toilet interests me. Your friend's contact information would be useful.
Thank you
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Comment by moderator (EvM): This is a spin-off thread from this thread on urinals here . Harry had asked Sam "Can you let us know a bit more about the 'foam generator toilet'?"

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Hello Harry，

Thank you very much for your explanation. There is an online Toilet Expo on May 8, 2020 in China. Many toilet manufacturers  are going to show their products in an online Expo group and inventors will present their design ideas in an online conference room. This Expo lasts for several days.

The foam toilet has been used for more than 10 years in many cities in China. I often use this kind of public toilet . It traces back to the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. In the Olympic Center in Beijing, there are many foam public toilets  and they still function well. The foam stop odor from entering into the environment. It uses a small foam generator run by electricity. This foam toilet gives off no smell, and the manure can be recycled.
  
I know the inventor very well. He is my friend. If you feel like connecting him, please feel free to let me know.

Best regards,

Sam Shan