Sanitation

Guillermo Bazan of the University of California, Santa Barbara in the U.S. proposes to introduce artificial molecular wires (AMWs) into a waste treatment system as a way to not only break down organic contaminants in human waste, but also catalytically convert the energy present in those microbes into electrical energy for local needs.

Natalie Cookson and colleagues at Quantitative BioSciences in the U.S. are developing an algae-based waste treatment system targeted for third-world applications. Cyanobacteria will treat a community's waste and produce two forms of renewable energy: nutrient-rich fertilizer to enhance agriculture and biomethane to power the facility and neighboring community.

Kory Russel, Sebastien Tilmans and Katherine Steele of Stanford University in the U.S. are designing a consumer-driven line of latrines that double as containment and transport systems for fecal wastes. The latrines will be low-cost, mass-producible, and easy to ship, enabling various sanitation services and collection businesses to develop in areas just outside dense urban populations.

Karsten Gjefle of Sustainable Sanitation Design in Norway will design and test a low cost system to rapidly turn human excreta into pathogen-free compost for use as fertilizer for farmers. Gjefle and his team hope to create a viable financial market that will remove untreated sewage from urban areas and also provide farmers with recycled, safe and natural soil improvements.

Olufunke Cofie of the International Water Management Institute in Ghana will develop and test fortified fertilizer pellets from treated human excreta for market sale. Production at large scale could enhance agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa, while also contributing to reduction in environmental health risk from untreated human waste. In Phase I Cofie tested several materials that are inexpensive and locally available as binding agents for producing robust fecal sludge pellets suitable for packaging and transportation.

Antonio Avila of Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil proposes to develop building blocks made from biocomposites that will replace conventional brick and cement constructions for pit latrines. The team will test these building blocks strength and their rate of biodegradation to determine their suitability for building latrines that will decompose once the pits are filled, allowing for the eventual reintroduction of the land for farming and other community uses.

Tim Canter of Frontier Environmental Technology in the U.S. proposes to develop a biogas generator that employs a unique self-sustaining mixing mechanism to effectively treat concentrated wastewater and produce biogas without extra energy or trained personnel.

Arum Han, along with Choongho Yu and Paul de Figueiredo at Texas A&M University in the U.S., will attempt to develop a hybrid waste water treatment system that uses microbial fuel cells to generate energy from waste water, which is then used to power a microbial electrolysis cell to produce biogas as a clean combustible fuel.

Marc Deshusses and David Schaad of Duke University in the U.S. proposes to develop a bioreactor system which converts waste to biogas, which is then burned and the temperature amplified through a heat exchanger to sterilize the treated effluent. This system could capture and re-use greenhouse gases while providing effective sanitation in developing countries.

Yuanbing Mao of the University of Texas-Pan American in the U.S. proposes to develop spray paints consisting of nanomaterials that work together to trap contaminants and destroy them using converted UV light. These spray paints could be used as decontaminating coatings for latrines.