It was long five years back Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation challenged the world to design a toilet which will be clean, green and sustainable. Finally, Cranfield University has come out with a viable solution called Nano Membrane Toilet. The project wasfunded by the Gates Foundationfor $710,000.
The background of this important project is the cruel fact thatmore than 2.4 billion peopleall around the world still live in a scenario where little or no sanitary facility exists. Without proper sanitation and running water they face life-threatening sanitation-related diseases.
The Nano Membrane toilet aims to overcome this situation. It’s waterless and simple to use. In full blown condition, it may serve as the future of sanitation.
Alison Parker, a lecturer in International Water and Sanitation at Cranfield Water Science Institute, highlighted the bottom lines: “It will be very hard to carry out the scheduled maintenance” in remote areas because these toilets needs to be serviced every six months and certain parts are needed to be replaced “Instead, the toilet will be used in dense urban areas where a number of factors make providing good sanitation very challenging, but where it would be possible to facilitate visits from a maintenance technician.”
Though the toilet is simple to use the underlying design is rather complex.
After a person has done with his business and closed the lid, the moving toilet bowl turns 270 degrees to dispose the waste inside a vat placed underneath. A scraper tool fitted inside wipes off the residual waste from the toilet bowl. At this stage the solid waste stays at the bottom and liquid goes up due to gravity. Inside the vat, there are installations of nanofiber bundles. They release the water vapor into a vertical tube which is placed in the rear of the toilet.
While the vapor goes up, specially designed beads condenses them into water. These water droplets falls down and stored in a tank at the front of the toilet. The remaining solid waste is lifted by a battery powered mechanism and it is transferred into a separate holding chamber. This chamber is coated with a layer of scent suppressing wax. The whole waste is allowed to be completely dry.
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