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<p class="MsoNormal">Snip- Promoting low-tech reliable sanitation systems, which can be built operated and maintained by local labour, would be a good start<span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D"> – snip</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D">I agree with you Duncan, but this issue is now alive in the media and we are all capable of adding to the concept designs and even building a solution for
ourselves that could be rolled out worldwide. Now there is a challenge – photos??</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> digestion-bounces@lists.bioenergylists.org [mailto:digestion-bounces@lists.bioenergylists.org]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Duncan Martin<br>
<b>Sent:</b> 07 September 2012 11:54<br>
<b>To:</b> eric roy; For Discussion of Anaerobic Digestion<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Digestion] Solar powered toilet</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Eric and all</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Ingenious and no doubt workable - but it looks to me like the kind of silly research that so many academics waste time and money on. (I speak as a retired academic myself!) </p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Lets consider the practical barriers to its widespread use - bearing in mind that their video says that their aim is to provide an off-grid sanitation system for use in developing countries.</p>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="">Cost - even with a minimal panel area, it wouldn't be cheap.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">How many hours of sunshine - again with a minimal panel area - would be needed for sanitization after one use?</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Their little 'holding tank' supposedly allows AD to break down faecal matter - but it would need to be very much bigger and more expensive to do so effectively.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">That combination of concerns suggest that it would not be remotely affordable for individual households. Economies of scale would apply at community level - but the size and cost of the solar array would multiply on a more-or-less
per capita basis (or maybe I should per backside!) so it would still be expensive</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">With frequent use (especially at community level) the system might need multiple treatment tanks operated on a timed sequence to ensure adequate treatment time - more cost, more complexity.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">They've thought of batteries to cover night use but what about cloudy days - or weeks? There aren't many places in this world where the sun shines for hours every day, whereas using the toilet is a daily need. Back-up generators?
More cost! Petrol to drive it? More cost! (Yes, AD stage would generate biogas - but it would be very costly to store enough gas to fuel the generator during a cloudy spell, which might last for weeks.)</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">All this complexity has to be maintained - and all systems would need to be backed-up because of the risk of breakdowns, (One of the first design rules for any kind of sewage treatment system is to keep it simple and very reliable
-- because shit just keeps on coming, so you can't shut down for repairs!)</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">The overall environmental impact of manufacturing all this kit would be substantial</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Finally, several of the components are easily stolen (panels, batteries, generators) and easy to sell on. My experience in Africa suggests that this could be a major weakness.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">So if one of these superloos ever gets installed in a real-world application in a developing country, I wouldn't bet on it working for very long. We might see them sooner in the developed world at sensitive locations (eg national
parks) - but even there the overall environmental benefit would be open to question, so they might be mere greenwash.</li></ol>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Bill and Melinda should spend their money on something more useful than feeding the egos of researchers! </p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Promoting low-tech reliable sanitation systems, which can be built operated and maintained by local labour, would be a good start.....</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Duncan Martin</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Cloughjordan Ecovillage</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Ireland</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">On 7 September 2012 00:39, eric roy <<a href="mailto:mailericroy@yahoo.com" target="_blank">mailericroy@yahoo.com</a>> wrote:</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Hi Everyone,</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">I was wondering if any of you have seen this system and can comment on it. I find it very interesting on how they're using some sort of electro-chemical cell to sanitize the supertenent outflow
for water-reuse. </span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/16/toilet-of-the-future-caltech-solar-powered-toilet-video-photos_n_1791874.html" target="_blank">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/16/toilet-of-the-future-caltech-solar-powered-toilet-video-photos_n_1791874.html</a></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Do you think they're cycling salt water through out the system? or fresh water? </span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">How expensive and reliable this type of fuel cell is? I thought it was pretty cool, and would love to learn a little bit more about it. If you know more about this system please let me know.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Cheers</span></p>
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