@misc{10902/8682,
year = {2016},
month = {6},
url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10902/8682},
abstract = {Sanitation systems currently used in most developed countries use large volumes of fresh water with 20 to 40% of the water consumption utilized for flushing toilets in sewered cities. This use of water turns increasingly scarce resources into waste but there is the potential to use fresh water more efficiently by the use of vacuum systems and turn wastewater into a valuable resource by recovering energy, recycled water and nutrients. The proposed sanitation system in this report includes the use of vacuum urinediverting toilets that separate blackwater into two different streams, urine and faeces, and an on-site treatment of the wastewater. The purpose of using these toilets is to save water, produce energy through anaerobic digestion and in the process recover nutrients. Vacuum toilets have the potential to use 10 times less potable water than conventional gravity toilets, substituting water by air as the main agent of transport. Suction created by a vacuum pump is used to remove faeces from the toilet, that travel through the piping system to a collection tank, where it can be treated in absence of oxygen, resulting into biogas and a sludge that will have the potential to be used as a fertilizer, after appropriate treatment. The separated urine is collected and piped separately to a collection tank through gravity. The nutrient recovery, specially phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium, is of critical importance, as the world is facing a critical problem due to a global limited availability of phosphate, essential for agricultural food production globally. The collection of household organic waste (kitchen waste) is also included in the proposed system, as mixing of it with blackwater help produce a more efficient biological treatment and biogas production. As increasing pressure is being exerted in our natural resources, new concepts have to be applied in the world, and sanitation has the potential to be highly improved to recover valuable resources such as water, carbon and nutrients.},
title = {Vacuum systems for organic waste in buildings and precincts},
author = {Burgada Ruiz, Alberto},
}