Master Thesis Master's Programme in Industrial Management and Innovation, 60 credits
Status of the Technology of Waterless Toilet Systems
An International Outlook
Thesis in Industrial Management and Innovation, 15 Credits
Halmstad 2020-07-09 Amal Surendran, Ashish Kumar K A HALMSTAD UNIVERSITY
ABSTRACT
Management of water resources are the cornerstones of environmental protection. There will be an increase in demand for water in the coming years and it is our responsibility to reserve our resources whether it is salt or fresh water. While analysing the paths of water being utilized, major amount is getting wasted through toilet flush. An average amount of water used in a single toilet flush is about 9 litres and an individual will be using the toilet on an average of 5 times a day which will be huge gallons of water in a minute around the world. In order to save the ecosystem and to become sustainable waterless toilet systems are the optimum solution. In this thesis, waterless toilet technologies marketed by different manufacturers are deeply analysed and scaled the maturity level of technologies using the technology readiness level. A technology-market portfolio is created which helps to provide the current status of the waterless toilet technology systems in the international market. The pandemic created due to the corona virus have led this paper to identify the opportunities that waterless toilets can have in the future with the help of innovations like smart toilet and artificial intelligence.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to take the opportunity to thank all of those that had a positive impact during the execution of this Thesis Work. Foremost, we want to thank our main supervisor and examiner Mike Danilovic for his support, feedback, and encouragement, which he did all this time period. Furthermore, we would like to express our gratitude towards Vicky Long for all the valuable feedback during the seminars. We want to thank both of you for being available for discussions, advice, support and encouragement for this Master's Thesis. Additionally, we are very grateful for all of our friendly colleagues at the division of Industrial management and innovation, for their valuable suggestion. Finally, we give our warmest thanks to our family whose support after all is the most essential.
Amal Surendran
Ashish Kumar K.A
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
TERM DEFINITION
UN : United Nations
UNESCO : The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
COVID-19 : Corona Virus Disease 2019
AI : Artificial Intelligence
TRL : Technology Readiness Level
MDG : Millennium Development Goals
VOD : Vacuum on demand
MPN : Most probable number
EPA : Environmental protection agency
LED : Light Emitting Diode
CTP : Current Technology Position
RTD : Rate of Technology Development
MS : Market Share
GP : Growth Potential
BORDA : Berman overseas Research and development association
R&D : Research and Development
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………....1 2. Purpose & Aim………………………………………………………………………...6 2.1.Research Questions……………………………………………………………………6 3. Literature Review……………………………………………………………………...7 3.1.Sustainable Sanitation………………………………………………………………..10 3.2.Sanitation Technologies……………………………………………………………...13 3.3.Waterless Toilets……………………………………………………………………..14 3.3.1. Composting Toilets……………………………………………………………....15 3.3.2. Incinerating Toilets……………………………………………………………....17 3.3.3. Electric Toilet………………………………………………………………….....19 3.3.4. Foam Flush Toilets…………………………………………………………….....20 3.3.5. Vacuum Toilets…………………………………………………………………..21 3.3.6. Evaporative Toilets………………………………………………………………22 3.4.Technology Readiness Level………………………………………………………...23 4. Methodology…………………………………………………………………………26 5. Data Presentation and Analysis…………………………………………...………….28 5.1.Biolan………………………………………………………………………………...30 5.2.Biolet…………………………………………………………………………………33 5.3.Clivus Multrum………………………………………………………………………35 5.4.Ecoethic Toilets………………………………………………………………………38 5.5.EcoJohn Toilets………………………………………………………………………41 5.6.Ecolet Toilets…………………………………………………………………………44 5.7.Ecotech Toilets……………………………………………………………………….46 5.8.Envirolet Toilets……………………………………………………………………...48 5.9.Nature Loo Toilets…………………………………………………………………...51 5.10. Pikkuvihrea/Phoenix Toilets…………………………………………………54 5.11. Separett Toilets……………………………………………………………….57 6. Findings………………………………………………………………………………59 6.1.Technology-Market Matrix…………………………………………………………..60 6.2.Technology at Present………………………………………………………………..63 iv
6.3.Toilet as a Health Tool……………………………………………………………….69 7. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………71 Reference…………………………………………………………………………………73
LIST OF FIGURES
1. Statistical comparison of manual operated and sensor operated flush systems……….2 2. UNESCO Eco-cycle………………………………………………………………...... 3 3. Ecosan Cycle…………………………………………………………………………..8 4. Conceptual overview of waste resources and potential for recovery……………..….11 5. Sanitation technologies……………………………………………………………….13 6. Schematic of conventional composting toilet………………………………………...16 7. Incinerating toilet schematic………………………………………………………….18 8. Electric Toilet Schematic……………………………………………………………..19 9. Foam flush toilet schematic…………………………………………………………..20 10. Vacuum toilet Schematic……………………………………………………………..21 11. Evaporative toilet schematic………………………………………………………….22 12. Technology Readiness Level…………………………………………………………23 13. Biolan Toilets………………………………………………………………………...30 14. Biolan S-Curve……………………………………………………………………….32 15. Biolet Toilets…………………………………………………………………………33 16. Biolet S-Curve………………………………………………………………………..34 17. Clivus Multrum Toilets………………………………………………………………35 18. Clivus Multrum S-Curve………………...... 37 19. Ecoethic Toilets………………………………………………………………………38 20. Ecoethic S-Curve……………………………………………………………………..40 21. EcoJohn Toilets………………………………………………………………………41 22. EcoJohn S-Curve……………………………………………………………………..42 23. Ecolet Toilets ………………………………………………………………………...44
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24. Ecolet S-Curve………………………………………………………………………..45 25. Ecotech Toilets……………………………………………………………………….46 26. Ecotech S-Curve……………………………………………………………………...47 27. Envirolet Toilets……………………………………………………………………...48 28. Envirolet S-Curve…………………………………………………………………….50 29. Nature Loo Toilets……………………………………………………………………51 30. Nature Loo S-Curve…………………………………………………………………..53 31. Pikkuvihrea Toilets…………………………………………………………………...54 32. Pikkuvihrea S-Curve………………………………………………………………….55 33. Separett Toilets……………………………………………………………………….57 34. Separett S-Curve……………………………………………………………………...58 35. Technology Matrix…………………………………………………………………...61 36. Market Matrix……………………....…………………………………………..…….61
LIST OF TABLES
1. List of waterless toilet manufacturers and products………………………………….29 2. Biolan models and characteristics……………………………………………………31 3. Biolet models and characteristics…………………………………………………….33 4. Clivus Multrum models and characteristics………………………………………….37 5. Ecoethic models and characteristics………………………………………………….39 6. Ecojohn models and characteristics………………………………………………….42 7. Ecolet models and characteristics……………………………………………………44 8. Ecotech models and characteristics…………………………………………………..46 9. Envirolet models and characteristics…………………………………………………49 10. NatureLoo models and characteristics……………………………………………….52 11. Pikkuvihrea models and characteristics……………………………………………...55 12. Separret models and characteristics………………………………………………….58
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1. INTRODUCTION
Water is essential for life and is an indispensable resource for the economy. The management and protection of water resources of both salt and fresh water eco systems and of the water we used in toilet purposes are one of the cornerstones of environmental protection. Water use has been increasing worldwide by about 1% per year since 1980s driven by the combination of population growth, socio economic development and change in consumption patterns. According to the report by (World Water Development Report 2019 | UN-Water, 2020) there will be an increase in demand for water by 20% to 30% until 2050. Over 2 billion people live in countries are experiencing water stress and over 4 billion people experience severe water scarcity. Physical water scarcity is often a seasonal phenomenon rather than a chronic one. The quality of the water is affected adversely due to the rise in temperature, low amount of dissolved oxygen which reduces the self-purifying capacity of the freshwater bodies. Further risks are caused by the water pollution and pathogenic contamination occurred due to the flooding of high polluted contaminations during the drought. Ecosystems are also facing risks particularly forests and wetlands. The degradation of ecosystems directly leads to have an impact on provision of water related ecosystem services like water purification, provision of water for agriculture, fisheries and recreation (The United Nations world water development report 2020: water and climate change - UNESCO Digital Library, 2020).
The time period between the year 2000-2015 is considered as the Millennium Development Goals period. During this period 91% of the global population used improved drinking water source and 68% used improved sanitation facilities. 35.8% of the world population still lacks access to proper sanitation facilities and because of this world leaders agreed to strive for access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all by 2030 as part of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Avellán, 2020). But the problem lies in the flush toilets which needs more waters supply. An average amount of water used in a single toilet flush is about 9 litres and an individual will be using the toilet on an average of 5 times a day. While calculating the amount of water wasted through toilet flush will be about billions of litres throughout the entire world. The United Nations roughly that roughly 5 litres of water per day is needed for toilet flushing. Thus, for the future and to maintain sustainability we have to start to prevent water scarcity from our homes itself.
As mentioned earlier toilet flush have been considered as the main source for the water wastage from the domestic use. So, it is necessary to have waterless toilets in the house, offices, public
1 | Page places, emergency camps and other premises. According to the study conducted on an office floor of the “Lakepointe” in the United States by Norm Davis, Water Conservation Program Technical Director, Hillsborough County in 2006 they have configured the amount of water that got wasted through the Manual and sensor based flush toilets. The following figure shows the statistics of water used.
Fig: 1, Statistical comparison of manual operated and sensor operated flush systems (Spanne, 2015)
The above statistics in Fig 1 shows the usage of the water in both manual and sensor based flush toilets (Spanne, 2015). The project was conducted on the seventh-floor toilets for men and woman of the Lakepointe Two building. A plumbing company was hired to install a water meter on the supply pipe line and a datalogger was also connected to the water meter during the entire testing where it was used to take the weekly meter reading s as part of the project. The findings was unexpected and shocking as the manual toilet flush uses more than 1.6 gallons of water and thus the regular usage of water in both the toilets resulted on the amount between 650 – 1300 gallons per day, which notifies that even a single floor in an office building uses this much amount of water, we can have unimaginable gallons of water that goes through a single flush in every part of the world.
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Today’s flush based urban sanitation systems, toilets are connected to both the centralized water and infrastructure which is not a sustainable use of our water and energy resources. the arrival of waterless toilets will make the sanitation systems decentralised which results in little to no water and might help in producing a value product called fertilizer. These toilets offers good promise to the sustainable solution to water and waste water issues (Anand and Apul, 2014). In addition, we are also discussing about the composting techniques which can be aligned with ecological design principles. While looking from the sustainable view point composting toilets have more advantages than any other waterless toilets as it has strong connection to the ecological system.
Fig: 2, (The United Nations world water development report 2020: water and climate change - UNESCO Digital Library, 2020)
The problems related to water can also be caused by the climate change which increases the risks to water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure such as damaged sanitation systems or the
3 | Page uncontrollable flooding of sewer pumping stations. The uncontrollable spreading of faeces and viruses can cause health hazards and cross contamination. Thus, new ideas and concepts have to be made based on the closed-loop ecological sanitation systems rather than expensive pipe technologies which leads to have sustainable sanitation systems. This system will be purely implemented on the basis of reuse and recycling of nutrients, safety of organics and water, and as an alternative to conventional solutions (Werner et al., 2009). The conventional sanitation system is based on the theory of disposing the excreta waste which unfortunately led to have the long-term sustainability is questionable. For the past decades, scientists and engineers have made great efforts for the ecological sanitation which commonly called by the name Eco-san. Eco san aims to meet socio-economic requirements such as preventing the pollution of surface and ground water, sanitization of urine and faeces, recovering nutrients for food production and saving water, energy and resources (Hu et al., 2016). Ecosan systems are found effective by evaluating the sanitizing effects of different additives which are used for the dry treatment of faeces and on the diversion process of urine from the dry toilets to reduce the pathogen activity of micro-organisms in the faeces. Thus, ecosystem will be effective in providing health and environmental pollution control (Magri, Philippi and Vinnerås, 2013). It is necessary for ecosan to evolve in the present scenario as it has more functions in promoting R&Ds and applications. Revolution of Ecosan can be classified into many types as it can be applied to certain areas like wastewater sources, urine treatment, faeces treatment, composting, economic feasibility, technical feasibility and environmental or social impacts. Among the above areas especially in terms of treatment process waterless toilets are taken to study as it has the major role in providing the sustainability for the future and the protection of the environment.
Waterless toilets can be the answer for the sustainability and it can also have an important part in playing a vital role in identifying infectious diseases like diabetes and liver diseases. These toilets have immense opportunities and technological pathways in the present situation which is also applicable for the water less toilet systems. This technology will be helpful hand for the medical field as well as to the public in different aspects. Health departments have more to move with the technical advancement in the toilets. In addition, artificial intelligence is capable of making a difference by having a technology that can test the urine and faeces samples and alert the user regarding his or her health. In a way this could be helpful for the people as they can be diagnosed from their home itself. The future of any product is unpredictable, day by day new technologies are widely accepted and get updated to new innovation with respect to concerning technologies. Now, toilets are capable of scanning our
4 | Page body’s waste and let us know about our state-of-health condition which results in disease free. Micron is the company who are developing smart toilet with artificial intelligence (AI) that may become your doctor in the future. Their major goal of this technology is to spot the signs of health issues, diseases or ailments in early stages that can lead to cure the diseases. Founded on our studies, we had a strong belief that smart toilets will be the next future. In fact, you don’t need to run short to visit a physician every six months. Smart toilet can notify If you have sign of diseases, they are capable of catch it much faster because of urine analysis and stool analysis,” said Sanjay Mehrotra, Chief Executive of Memory Chipmaker Micron Technology.
Waterless toilets have a great historical significance where it was invented by an English clergyman Henry Moule in the year 1849 and it was introduced as ‘dry earth system’. The waterless toilet techniques had risen up from that dry earth system to ‘incinerating toilets’ by none other than Bill Gates. Considering the market for the waterless toilets, more focus should be given to highly populated regions like Africa, China, India and other Asian countries. Bill gates have focussed on waterless toilet by considering the unhealthy conditions in Africa, where most of the population got affected by Malaria disease which arise from human waste and infected through insects. Africa is one of the nations which is facing severe water scarcity and humans need to use the toilet on an average of 5 times in a day. This might make the condition worse as there is no proper treatment for waste management and sanitation processes. Thus, introducing composting toilet to the people would be more demanding as it could help to prevent the crisis to certain level. In this thesis we are focussing on status of waterless toilet technology systems on international outlook and its importance in the future. The goal of this paper is to review the current status of the knowledge and technology of the waterless toilet system used in developed countries and identify its market, future and knowledge gaps.
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2. PURPOSE AND AIM
The purpose of the study is to analyse the current status of the waterless toilet technology in the international outlook and the market analysis of the current waterless toilet products. For this paper we will be concentrating on the objectives like world market for the waterless toilet including different manufacturers of waterless toilets and the organizations who support the importance of sustainability and waterless toilet. Furthermore, the aim is to identify the scope of the toilet products in the smart era and to have a view in the health care sector where it can have high level of influence. The pandemic situation created because of the Corona virus have motivated us to look forward with the technology where these toilet products can have an influence in the health care sector.
We would like to explore the topic by means of finding solution to the following research question
2.1. RESEARCH QUESTION
1. What are the Waterless toilet products available in the market? How their technology and market value can be analysed on the basis of Technology readiness Level and Technology-Market matrix?
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3. LITERATURE REVIEW
Toilet or lavatory is essential wherever humans gather or live where toilet provision have been called the barometer of civilization. Unimproved sanitation technologies have been a major cause of concern for the environment and public health. In urban areas most of the toilets are connected to the septic tanks that are not safely emptied or use other system to discharge the raw waste. About 50% of the people living in rural areas lack improved sanitation facilities compared to 18% of people in urban areas (Cheng et al., 2018). Diseases and environmental pollution are arising because of the poor sanitation. Thus, it calls for a toilet revolution and it will open the opportunities to develop sustainable goals, environmental protection and resource recovery, disease prevention and poverty alleviation (Cheng et al., 2018).
There arise some reasons which are important to think while changing the conventional sanitation systems to waterless toilet systems or to ecosan. When it comes to the conventional sanitation approaches, we can see unsatisfactory purification or uncontrolled discharge of more than 90% of waste water world-wide. Another reason is the pollution of waterbodies occurred by nutrients, hazardous substances, pathogens, pharmaceutics, hormones etc. and above all it will have an adverse effect on environmental damage and eutrophication of water cycle (Werner et al., 2009). Major drawback is the consumption of precious water for the transportation of wastes from the domestic and centralised system, high investment is required as it requires energy, operation and maintenance. We have a gifted nature as there is no waste is produced by itself. Humans, animals and all other living and non-living beings are part of the nature where everyone lies in a closed loop called ecosystem (Fig: 3). Thus, human faeces cannot be considered as a waste as it is also part of the ecosystem; but there is a misconception that these wastes cannot be reused. In the present scenario, revolutionary rethinking is needed while considering the environmental damage, health risks, water crisis occurred due to the sanitary practices a new paradigm is required in sanitation which should be particularly focussing on ecosystem. In this system, human wastes and waste waters should be treated as the resources for future. Water supply, sanitation services and waste water treatment facilities can be highly vulnerable to potential shift in climatic parameters (The United Nations world water development report 2020: water and climate change - UNESCO Digital Library, 2020). Thus, improved water management system opens up the opportunities for water reuse, conservation of agriculture and renewable energies which can have direct effects on water resources (Wallis et al., 2014). Hence comes the importance of Ecosan.
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Fig: 3, Ecosan cycle (EcoSan Tech: Digitizing Ecological Sanitation Services in Haiti, 2017)
Ecosan is the short form for ecological sanitation which provides the overall view of the economically sustainable waste management system. This system introduces the concept of sustainability and integrated, ecosystem oriented water and natural resources management to sanitation (Werner et al., 2009). The basic principle of the ecosan is the loop between sanitation and the agriculture in order to have some advantages like improvement of health by minimising by the use of pathogens from human excreta to the water cycle, hygienic recovery and use of nutrients, conservation of resources, preservation of soil fertility are some of the cons. Thus, closing the loop enables the recovery of organics, macro and micro nutrients, water and energy contained in the wastes can be reused. The reuse of human excrement with the proper treatment will help to have a biproduct which would be helpful for the agriculture use. The effective treatment and handling play significant role during the material handling throughout the process, starting from the collection to reuse. The first principle of the ecosan is to prevent the infections and the second principle is to digest or proper treatment of these waste materials in an ecological way. These principles of ecosan works in two different ways. One way is which the collection of faeces, urine and grey water separately other is the use of dry toilets or waterless toilets which minimises the use of water.
Waterless toilet is a type of toilet system which prevents the unnecessary use of water for cleaning processes. What is the relevance of waterless toilets if there is an option of
8 | Page technologies like the use of grey water or harvested rain water can be used for flushing instead of pure potable water? The problem lies in the wastewater infrastructure where the wastes are first diluted with water for the conveyance. Thus, in order to biodegrade the wastes, huge treatment plants are required along with high energy and economy and hence it is important to give more importance to decentralized sanitation system rather than the centralised system. Being decentralised and having limited to zero amount of water, waterless toilets offers future for the sustainable solutions to water and waste water infrastructure issues. Waterless toilets fit with today’s idea and importance of sustainable construction as they reduce the water and wastewater flow within the building. The use of waterless toilets in a new construction or renovation building can help in water reduction and innovative waste water technologies which uses less to zero amount of water.
Safe drinking water and proper sanitation is considered as the basic human rights as they are directly proportional to sustainability and healthy environment. International human rights law obligates to work towards achieving access to water and sanitation for all without discrimination (World Water Development Report 2019 | UN-Water, 2020). Thus, it necessary to move forward with composting toilets where it will help to reduce the usage of water which limit to zero and also have an effective usage of composts in the agriculture sectors. A Composting toilet consist of two primary components namely the toilet and the composting tank. In order to remove the odour or the foul smell the system will be consisting of ventilation pipe and an exhaust fan. One door will be present on the downside of the system to empty compost. Use of bulking agents will help to manage different types of waste, maintain carbon- nitrogen ratio and to increase the porosity of the compost (Anand and Apul, 2014). Factors affecting composting in these kinds of toilets are aeration, moisture content, temperature, carbon-nitrogen ration, pH, particle size and porosity.
Even though composting toilets have its advantages and there lie some barriers in adopting this technology. Unfamiliarity of this technology is one barrier and acceptance from people is another. Public will be concern about the maintenance issues as composting toilet need more attention than the flush technology toilet. Design advancements should be needed to overcome the barriers as it has long future in the sustainable world. In 2015, one in three people in the world doesn’t have the proper sanitation facilities where 946 million people are practiced to open defecation (Cheng et al., 2018). Which could lead for having diseases like diarrhoea causing high morbidity and mortality rates. These kinds of diseases are transmitted through the faecal-oral route. Thus, it is crucial in places which faces water scarcity and shortage of water
9 | Page to have effective sanitation treatment which could lead to have proper way of living in a healthy and sustainable way. The waterless toilet will have the chance to eradicate or prevent the diseases like diarrhoea with the proper and effective use of its technology in both urban and rural areas. The waterless toilet technology can also be used for the composting purposes where it can be used for the production of fertilizers. In a way which can be useful for the people to have an income or to have their own compost for the agriculture sector.
3.1. SUSTAINABLE SANITATION
Sanitation is the primary foundation for healthy and productive urban life and the swift of population makes the sanitation more challenging. By the end of 2030, the population is expected to be doubled and thus more investments is needed to provide sufficient and adequate sanitation systems to serve the people or the cities. The sanitation system provided should be functional, safe and affordable. In other words, sustainable sanitation is identified as a solution to economically viable, socially acceptable, technically appropriate and should also protect the environment and the natural resources (Andersson, Dickin and Rosemarin, 2016). From the 19th century itself, urban sanitation is considered or acted as the function of disposing human wastes and waste waters from cities as soon as possible. Improper, faulty or aging sanitation systems leads to have complex diseases like chronic diarrhoea and infection with like helminths. Because of the inadequate water supply or defective sanitation or hygiene practices 842,000 deaths are deaths have recorded per year globally including the children (Andersson, Dickin and Rosemarin, 2016). Lower income countries face in providing adequate waste water treatment and faecal sludge management because of the lower revenues and even for the higher income countries like Sweden, smaller urban cities have closed down their treatment plants and are continuing building pipelines to larger cities with high investments.
In order to prevent the rise and spread of diseases it is necessary to have proper sanitation in rural and urban areas. For this international organizations, United Nations and other government bodies are trying rigorously to have adequate sanitations since the early 90’s and for that the member nations of United Nations and other international organizations have agreed to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) at the 1992 World Summit with an aim of having drinking water and proper sanitation to the people around the world by 2015 (Zhou et al., 2018). As an inspiration world toilet organization declared November 19th as the “World Toilet Day” in the year 2001. Even though there was an increase of 54% to 68% in the percentage of people who have access to improved sanitation while 4.5 billion people lacking
10 | Page safe sanitation. Proper and safe access to toilets are the and the management of the excreta should be the basic initiatives for the sustainable sanitation. Most of the major cities have given limited attention to the design of sanitation systems which can cause more problems due to the climate changes. Events like floods and drought can cause overflow or breakdown of the existing sanitation technologies which creates serious health issues due to the reaction of pathogens. The drought happened in the Sao Paulo, Brazil have to be considered as a warning which insist the requirement of efficient natural resources management in the face of changing climate or environmental conditions.
Sustainable sanitation is considered as the catalyst for urban development which addresses the economic, social technical environment and natural resources in an integrated way (Andersson, Dickin and Rosemarin, 2016). Sustainable sanitation is an approach rather than a single technology where it provides the idea of potentially recovering the components of sanitation waste streams that are reusable especially in the agricultural or energy sectors. Which in a way open the door of opportunities for new businesses and job creation along with making the urban systems more resource efficient. The below figure shows some diverse opportunities where the resources can be utilized and some major cities and nations have already implemented the utilization of resources and figured the marketability of the recycled products. The resource recovery schemes like irrigation with waste water and excreta-based fertilizers are already implemented whereas protein feed production from insects formed from human faeces are in the experimental stage.
Fig: 4, Conceptual overview of waste resources and potential for recovery (Andersson, Dickin and Rosemarin, 2016)
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While analysing the figure 4, human wastes have more potential as an adult produces 500 Litres of urine and 50 litres of faeces per year on an average which is sufficient for producing 10 kg of fertilizer. Thus, being used for the agriculture, these wastes are getting back to the nature and the cycle of ecosystem will keep continue to rotate while preserving the nature. In addition, combining human wastes with other organic wastes such as kitchen wastes, will helps in the production of biogas through anaerobic digestion. To ensure sustainability, it is necessary to analyse the potential health risks as the treatment of the wastes is not taken with proper and non-technical measures. Resources extracted from excreta and waste water will be water, nutrients, energy content and organic matter. This cane be treated with resource management options like water reusing and recycling, combined use of water and nutrient reuse, energy generation, eco system and other outputs. Available technical options for resource management is separate grey water management, waterborne excreta management, sludge management, waste water treatment and sludge treatment. Combination of both management and technical options of the resources will provide multiple potential benefits like health protection, water security, environmental protection, food security, livelihoods, energy security, gender equity, climate mitigation and adaptation. Improvement or investment in the sanitation will help protect the human life especially those who are living in the slums. Looking in an economic view, investments made to the sanitation and improved water make an inverse proportion with the cost in health care as it reduces the chance of getting sick.
Sustainable sanitation is an idiom which consists of protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, developing economical, technically flexible and environment friendly sanitation. Thus, sustainable sanitation should be economically viable, socially acceptable and most of all it should sounds good in technical as well as institutional approach. Here arises the need for waterless toilets which would be most appropriate for the sustainable sanitation (Zhou et al., 2018). In this paper we are focussing on the practical acceptance of the waterless toilet and a pathway for raising economies through the waterless toilet technology. Providing an effective eco sanitation to the global population is a challenging job as it has to consider the services for the people in accordance with affordability, durability, convenience, aesthetic design and effectiveness (Hu et al., 2016). As an alternative to realize the sustainable sanitation an approach called ecological sanitation is introduced which is known as the resource-oriented sanitation which have a treatment of reclaiming the resources from the sewage disposal. For the past three decades scientists and engineers have put great effort on the ecological sanitation which aims socio-economic requirements, surface and ground water pollution prevention, food
12 | Page product nutrition and saving energy and resources. According to (Werner et al., 2009) eco-san is based on the systematic implementation of the reuse and recycling of the nutrients, organics and water as hygienically safe.
3.2. SANITATION TECHNOLOGIES
During the last decades, different types of ecological sanitations have been implemented with different user interfaces, collection and storage, treatment process, reuse and recycle of water and nutrients. Sanitation technology can be water based or composting based (Fig: 5). Water based system is a conventional method system which uses flush technology with potable water, rainwater or grey water. As far as our concern is a sustainable world and to avoid the use of water in the toilets composting technologies are much preferable. Composting toilets such as dry toilets or waterless toilets which are made of plastic, ceramic or fibre glass will be the optimum solution for the future.
Fig: 5, Sanitation Technologies (Anand and Apul, 2014)
Waterless toilets are not suitable for the sewer system as it doesn’t use the water and there rise the crucial challenge of performing the sanitation with proper hygiene, convenience and comfort. The conventional composting toilet system will be consisting of two parts mainly known as the primary components like the toilet and the composting tank. An exhaust fan will be included in the compost system to remove any odour. Some of the composting toilets are
13 | Page equipped with mechanical mixer which helps to homogenize the compost matrix to maintain conditions favourable for aerobic digestion of the faeces collected in the toilet. This system helps the organic matter to get oxidised to form ammonia, carbon dioxide and humus. These products will be recycled for soil fertilizers as it contains stable, high molecular weight dissolved organic matter. The factors affecting aerobic composting in toilets are aeration, moisture content, temperature, carbon and nitrogen content, pH, particle size and porosity.
Adequate aeration is required to maintain aerobic conditions. Lack of oxygen in the pile will lead to have odour issues and it will reduce the rate of composting (Anand and Apul, 2014). Moisture content also plays an important role in adequate microbial activity as the amount of air space in compost is affected by the moisture content of the compost. The moisture content in the faeces is 82% (Lopez Zavala, Funamizu and Takakuwa, 2004) and on the other hand too much moisture content will leads to anaerobic conditions thus, composting systems should have the provisions to remove leachate and to reduce to excess moisture of the compost. Different temperatures in the system refers to the different phases of composting. During composting, heat produced will cause the temperature to rise above more than 45°C where thermophilic organisms will become active whereas mesophilic organisms will get activated between the temperature range of 19-45°C (Lopez Zavala, Funamizu and Takakuwa, 2004). Pathogens are completely eradicated during the thermophilic phase with a temperature of 50-65°C (Magri, Philippi and Vinnerås, 2013). The practical management of compost focuses on adjusting the ratio of carbon and nitrogen in the compost pile which affects the composting process.
3.3. WATERLESS TOILETS
Elimination of human excreta is one of the first priorities of the mankind because of the olfactory annoyance (Nasri, Brun and Fouché, 2019). To propose a system with minimal usage of water and low cost in the treatment of human excreta or the faeces, technological innovations have strived since early stages which now met with the waterless toilet technology. Waterless toilets are alternative solution which has been primarily used in the rural areas with water scarcity and environmental problems. In order to reach the sustainable goals, more innovations have to be conducted in the specified waterless technology as it has the advantage of nutrient recycling, treatment of wastes as compost. When it comes to the implementation of the technology in toilets, wide range of products can be occupied. The challenges, in terms of technological innovation, knowledge management, research and capacity development, are to promote the generation of new tools and approaches through advanced research and
14 | Page development, and, equally as important, to accelerate the implementation of existing knowledge and technologies across all countries and regions. However, these actions will only lead to the intended outcomes if they are accompanied by awareness-raising, as well as educational and capacity development programmes, in order to widely disseminate the available knowledge and to stimulate the uptake of new and existing technologies (The United Nations world water development report 2020: water and climate change - UNESCO Digital Library, 2020). The technology for composting has been used since old times whereas the design, application and performance are still in the birth stage. The technology design should be updated with the consideration of safety, functionality, economics, aesthetics, social and environmental affordability (Anand and Apul, 2014). In order to conduct the study, we have taken the waterless toilet technologies which are readily available in the market. Thus, it would be easy to analyse the technologies and the products manufactured by different manufacturers. Waterless toilets which is also known as dry toilets typically utilize no water for flushing. In these kinds of waste disposal systems, there is no water used for treating or transporting human excreta. There are different types of waterless toilets, some of them are:
Composting toilet
Incinerating Toilets
Electric Toilets
Foam flush toilets
Vacuum-flush toilets
Evaporating toilets
3.3.1. COMPOSTING TOILETS
Among these toilets, composting toilets are given more preferences as its principle is same as that of the ecosan. It is giving back to the nature what it takes in a recycling manner in the form of compost or fertilizer. They are typically made of plastic, ceramic or fibre glass. It consists of two primary components; the toilet and the composting tank, secondary parts like ventilation fans and ventilation pipe are used to remove the foul smell from the toilet. Similar to the conventional toilets, composting toilet is a waste collector where the collected wastes are then burned to ashes in the combustion chamber. In this process the wastes are digested aerobically with the use of some catalysts. In order to maintain and adjust carbon-nitrogen ratio, bulking agents like sawdust or food wastes are added and to increase the porosity of the compost. With
15 | Page the help of a mechanical mixer compost mixture are homogenized to maintain the favourable conditions for aerobic digestion where organic matter is oxidised into ammonia, carbon monoxide and humus. The end product will have stable, high molecular weight dissolved organic matter which can be used as soil fertilizers.
Fig: 6, Schematic of conventional composting toilet (Composting Toilets, 2012)
Apart from the conventional toilet system showed in the fig 6, self-contained composting toilets are widely used in the recent times as it has the space convenience and easy maintenance compared to the conventional system. As the time flies more innovations have been implemented in the composting toilet technology such as single or multi chambered, water- based flushing with the use of foam, electric and non-electric toilets and the urine separating toilets. All these innovations have been made by different companies for their different products around the world aiming to have one goal of sustainable sanitation. However, design and performance of the composting toilets are in the early stages and because of that, design of criteria for composting toilets have been listed as safety, functionality, aesthetics, economy, social and environmental affordability (Lopez Zavala, Funamizu and Takakuwa, 2004). The design consists of a composting chamber, ventilation to prevent foul odour, supply of carbon
16 | Page to maintain carbon-nitrogen ratio and a door access for the removal of composted material. Due to the climatic changes, it is better to have a heater to maintain temperature and to evaporate moisture. Size of the composting chamber is designed according to the number of people who are going to use the toilet and the size is calculated with two different methods.
First method is used to find the volume (V in m3) of the composting chamber by multiplying three primary factors such as interval period for emptying (N), average number of users (P) and annual sludge produced per person (R) which have a recommended value as 0.05m3/year/person (Franceys, 1992; Anand and Apul, 2014; Bhagwan et al., 2008)
V = N x P x R
Second method is introduced by (Lopez Zavala, Funamizu and Takakuwa, 2004) by accounting the amount of liquid matter such as urine and considering moisture content at 60%. The required surface area was considered as 643cm2 as standard and compost matrix was estimated as 17 L and 34 L per capita considering the withdrawal of compost in every 6 months and every year. Exhaust fan for odour removal can be designed according to the size of the ventilation pipe and the volume of air exchanged from the chamber. Outside end of the ventilation pipe should be covered with bird screen or mesh to prevent the entries of the bird or insects through the ventilation pipe. Most of the waterless toilets available in the market are based on the above 2 design criteria’s and are innovated incrementally based on the composting toilet design.
The innovations in the field of waterless toilets have taken to the extreme with the technology we have including the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI). Many companies around the world have been manufacturing and marketing these technologies all over the world. In this paper we have considered the basic technology as the composting technology and composting toilet as the base model for the other innovative technology systems.
3.3.2. INCINERATING TOILETS
Incinerating Toilets is a type of dry toilet which burns the faeces instead of using the water through flushing. The technology of incinerating technology is considered as the most updated technology in the waterless toilet systems (Dry toilet, 2020). The dry toilet may have a raised pedestal on which the user can sit, or a squat pan over which the user squats in the case of a squat toilet. In both cases, the excreta (both urine and faeces) falls through a drop hole. Incinerating toilets may be powered by electricity, gas, dried faeces or other energy sources. Incinerating toilets gather excrement in an integral ashpan and then incinerate it, reducing it to
17 | Page pathogen-free ash. Some will also incinerate "grey water" created from showers and sink. Fig 7 shows the schematic presentation of an incinerating toilet. The figure shown is the product of Microsoft’s Foundation. The design shown in the schematic is the basic design and some of the features will be varying according to the manufacturers.
Fig: 7, Incinerating toilet schematic (The hot poop on the Cinderella incinerating toilet, 2020)
Incinerating toilets are self-contained waterless systems that do not require being hooked-up to a sewer system or inground septic system (except to dispose of greywater) (Compendium of Information on Alternative Onsite Septic System Technology in Massachusetts : Barnstable County Department of Health and Environment, n.d.). They rely on electric power or natural or propane gas to incinerate human waste to sterile clean ash. When properly installed these systems are simple to use, safe, clean and relatively easy to maintain. These waterless systems look much like a standard household toilet. Between the gas and electric incinerating toilets there are some mechanical and operational differences, but the overall treatment processes work the same. Both systems accept human waste, both solid and liquid, into a burn chamber. The burn chamber reaches temperatures of 970-1400 °F and reduces human waste into clean sterile ash. Being treated as the most innovative toilet technology, price for incinerating toilet is higher compared to other toilets systems.
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3.3.3. THE ELECTRIC TOILET
The electric toilet is relatively easy to install. Because the system doesn’t require water and there is no need for a plumbing connection (Compendium of Information on Alternative Onsite Septic System Technology in Massachusetts : Barnstable County Department of Health and Environment, n.d.). Setup involves placing the unit within the desired location, connecting a 3-inch diameter exhaust vent between the rear of the unit and the building’s exterior, and plugging the unit into an electrical outlet (120 volts). The electric toilet requires a bowl liner to be placed into the stainless-steel toilet bowl before each use. The liner protects the bowl from human waste and the need for excessive, unpleasant cleaning. Waste is collected into the liner which drops through the hinged bowl into a lower holding/burn area when the foot pedal on the unit is depressed. The lower holding/burn area can accept a maximum of 2-4 flushes before incineration is necessary.
Fig: 8, Electric Toilet Schematic (Force 4 Electric Comfort Sea Toilet 12V, 2020)
After a flush, pressing the start button will begin the incineration cycle. Care must be taken that there is no paper or waste product protruding through the hinged bowl. This will prevent any burning or smoke outside of the chamber. The start button activates a heating coil to start the incineration process. The collected waste in the holding area is subjected to heat temperatures of up to 1400 °F for a pre-selected run time (about one hour). The heat and smoke within the incineration chamber is filtered through an odour control catalyst (much like the one found on an automobile exhaust system) and out the exhaust vent. The systems contain an exhaust blower which continues to extract heat after the heating coil has shut off and until the
19 | Page incineration chamber has cooled down to about 130 °F. Once the ash pan has cooled down to room temperature the incinerated debris, about a tablespoon, can be discarded. The electric toilet is relatively easy to install. Because the system doesn’t require water there is no need for a plumbing connection. Setup involves placing the unit in the desired location, connecting a 3- inch diameter exhaust vent between the rear of the unit and the building’s exterior, and plugging the unit into an electrical outlet (120 volts).
3.3.4. FOAM-FLUSH TOILETS
Foam-Flush toilets look and function much like conventional toilets and this was considered as the innovative technology before the arrival of incinerating 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 (Foam Flush Toilets, 2020). 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.
Fig: 9, Foam flush toilet schematic (Flushing Options, 2013)
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3.3.5. VACUUM TOILETS
Vacuum technology for sanitary installations is an advanced technique in both economic and ecologic aspects. Its application is flexible and independent from a natural bond. New buildings as well as the sanitation of old buildings or the reconstruction of existing buildings are all appropriate fields of application. Vacuum toilet systems are applicable both in large and small buildings, trains, ships and airplanes. Vacuum on demand systems produce a vacuum only at the moment the toilet needs to be flushed. The system also uses air together with water for transport of sewage, as opposed to conventional flush toilets, which use water mainly (Vacuum Toilet | SSWM - Find tools for sustainable sanitation and water management!, 2020).
Vacuum toilets are also a convenient solution for decentralised wastewater treatment. Effluents, such as urine and faeces can be treated by a biogas settler. Vacuum toilets are flush toilets that use section for the removal of faeces and urine resulting in a minimal requirement of water. Vacuum toilets provide the same level of comfort as traditional flush toilets and they help saving costs due to the minimised amount of flush water. Due to the fact that the effluent has a high organic matter content, vacuum toilets are specifically adapted for the use in combination with separate greywater and blackwater treatment or aerobic digestion treatment for biogas production.
Fig:10, Vacuum toilet Schematic (ACO, 2020)
The Vacuum toilet evacuates air from the drainpipes automatically upon activation of the activator button. A valve opens in the toilet, and the difference in air pressure that results causes
21 | Page the sewage to be flushed. Due to lower energy requirement, small VOD systems can be solar powered. At the end of the vacuum pipes, “biobanks” can be made available to compost the already shredded waste on-site. Flushed sewage is pumped through a particle filter into the composting tank. As soon as it is full, it can be emptied and put aside for further composting.
3.3.6. EVAPORATIVE TOILET
The toilet uses an innovative self-flushing technology by breaking the toilet down into two parts: a box-seat shell and a pouch with a polymer membrane that sits within a drum. The polymer membrane has twin powers: It’s able to evaporate the liquid contents of the pouch (our waste is about 95 percent water) while safely and odourlessly keeping the 5 percent of faecal matter contained (Piano - Client Dashboard, 2020). Breathable materials can essentially evaporate water by basic in science technology which evaporating water is a good way to purify it, you distil it. These breathable materials have the ability to allow to evaporate water without having to pump in a lot of heat or energy.
Fig: 11, Evaporative toilet schematic (25 new ways to help people affected by war, 2019)
The contraption resembles a traditional toilet that’s set atop a box with a side vent. Inside there’s a collection drum that’s lined with a pouch made from a proprietary moisture-wicking polymer. As excrement goes in, the polymer sucks the water out, dehydrating the sewage while releasing water vapor (This Toilet Vaporizes Poop To Solve Sanitation Problems | DeviceDaily.com, 2018). The process isn’t entirely stink-free, but the rapid separation of solids and liquids tends to snuff out much of the odour, and there’s an additional filter inside the box.
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Poop is about 75% water (and pee even more so). By transforming normal bowel movements into tiny dried turds, the device enables multiple uses without immediate maintenance. The system is compact which means the collection doesn’t have to be frequent and the haulage volume will be 95% lesser. It’s a potentially breakthrough way to provide better sanitation services to the roughly 2.6 billion people who don’t have access to toilets in the developing world. The technology works better in fry and hot climate which make this ideal for African and Arab nations. But this technology has updated from the basic science technology which everyone has a basic idea, so getting the market acceptance and costumer wouldn’t be a major challenge.
3.4.TECHNOLOGY READINESS LEVEL (TRL)
Technology readiness level is a method of measuring the maturity of the technology during its acquisition period which allows the engineers to have a reference for understanding the evolution of the technology regardless their technical background. TRL developed by NASA measures the technology throughout its research, development and deployment phase progression and is marked in a scale of 1-9 where 9 is considered as the most mature technology. The fig 12 shows the scale of TRL and how it is measured.
Fig: 12, Technology Readiness Level (What are Technology Readiness Levels (TRL)?, 2020)
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We are using this method to identify the technology level of the products launched by the different manufacturers around the world. The main aim of its use is to identify the maturity level of both the technology and the product which in a way helps the manufacturers to research develop and deploy the innovative products. Technology readiness level consisting of three consecutive stages like research, development and deployment. These three stages include another 3 sub stages on their particular processes. The beginning stage of research is the observation of basic principles. This is the preliminary stage where scientific observations are made and recorded. Next sub-stage in research is the formulation of technology concept. Envisioned applications are speculative at this stage and analytical studies will be carried out. Third stage in research is the experimental proof of concept where the research and development are effectively initiated. At this stage laboratory measurements are taken to validate the analytical predictions.
Later the research stage, development stage begins with technology validation in the laboratory. This is made by validating the technology through proper design investigation and the examples will be analysed on the operating range of the technology parameter. In the next stage, technology will be validated in an environment to check the reliability of the technology. Final stage in development is the demonstration of the technology in the environment and the prototype is verified in this stage. The example will be a prototype system or model which is produced and demonstrated in a stimulated environment. Final stage is the deployment stage which initiates with the system prototype demonstration in an operational environment. This is a major step in increasing the maturity. In the next stage, system will get completed and qualified where an example generated from previous stage will be used to manufacture an actual model which would be tested and qualified in the operational environment. Final stage in TRL is the actual system proven in environment which will be ready for the commercial deployment. The model will be successfully deployed for multiple purposes by end users.
As mentioned above we will be analysing the multiple products of waterless toilets by different manufacturers and identifying the maturity level for each product. This systematic addressing of TRL will allows the technology to evolve from conception through to research development and deployment. According to the data we have collected form the manufacturers we will be identifying the maturity level of each products and scale the maturity with TRL which might lead for the additional concurrency and technological development to achieve a higher TRL. The use of TRL can also be utilized in the technology portfolio to categorize the different products in the technology matrix. Thus, this framework will be appropriate for analysing the
24 | Page technology updates of the waterless toilet products by different manufacturers. Even though there lies some advantages and disadvantages for the use of TRL framework which we would like to mention below
ADVANTAGES:
Provide common understanding of the status of the technology It can be used for decision making concerning transition of technologies over time
DISADVANTAGES:
There will be some confusion lies as mature product possess lesser or greater degree of readiness in a particular system context than a lower maturity Need to consider the working environment as the product system may mis-match with the system architecture Readiness does not necessarily fit with the technology maturity
Technology readiness level is extremely useful in the technology development as it can be a crucial factor for increasing the productivity by making it easier to assess the modern technologies (Technology Readiness Level (TRL) Definition, 2017). TRL is used by almost all tech industries in their operations and industries and organizations such as oil and gas industries, European Commission, European Space Agency (ESA) and U.S. Department of Defence.
Furthermore, we are using the TRL to create a portfolio analysis which would helps to create a Technology and Market Matrix. These matrixes can be used for analysing the products and their technology according to the characterisations of Current Technology Position, Rate of Technology development, Growth Potential and Market share. The Technology-Market matrix for our research is created on the basis of TRL we have created and this can be used to plot the different products and the technologies available in the market according to the analysis factors or characteristics.
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4. METHODOLOGY
For this thesis work, we need to know more about how the waterless toilet operates and how the manufacturers upgraded with technology in years and the future, common challenges and how they find solution for the common challenges, market for the waterless toilet and how we can successfully implement the waterless toilet in Asian and African market which gain more market attraction in an international outlook. Description of the research methods that were followed in this study is represented. The procedures used to get access to informants, methods for data collection and the methods employed to carry out this thesis were shown in this section. Methods used for data collection and data analysis is also portrayed with illustrations. Further, the case description which includes the company products details are provided with respect to its overview, its products, services and sustainable initiatives carried out in the company.
For analysing the aspects mentioned above we have identified some articles, journals and interviews. Articles and journals will be collected through the university library database and with the help of Scopus most of the articles will be acquired. Articles will be about composting toilets, toilet revolution happened around the world, ecological sanitation, smart toilet, spaceship technology and sustainability.
Our primary data collection include interview such as informational interview and focuses on the group who are supporting sanitation and sustainability. While addressing with them we could able to identify the relevance and the importance of waterless less toilet technology with respect to the industry, which make a major impact on our thesis. We have approached different organizations to gain professional background that can add value to our research question. While comparing with different industry, we narrow down the core subject that can showcase in our thesis.
In our cross- sectional interview, we were able to connect with ‘Separett’; an organization which plays a vital role in progress of this thesis work. The analysis of the barriers is based on the literature, it means, the framework is still not completely adapted to a manufacturing company. In this study, an attempt to use the framework and adapt it to this kind of company was conducted. The intended outcome was to optimize a framework that might be helpful to identify the insights of manufacturing companies and extend the theory that relates to how the manufacturing firms implement waterless toilets, how is the sustainability addressed in this context and what are the barriers they have face by implementing the product in the market.
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This study aims to investigate what is happening, to gain new insights, to analyse and assess the information in a new perception. Thus, exploratory studies suit better in this thesis.
Investigating whether the barriers from the established literature are limited to certain cases or finding out different cases by extending the barriers from the literature by identifying more cases where it can easily flow with our topic. In this section, strategies that has been used in this thesis to gain access to the data is explained. Primarily, by gaining familiarity with the company’s background and characteristics, the desire step was to provide information about this research to the gatekeepers of the firm and this was performed using a convincing abstract to enable them provide access to collect data for this thesis from the organization. The company’s response was thus awaited by providing sufficient time before emailing back the company for further correspondence. Further to this, existing contacts and relationships were made use of in order to get in touch with the case company.
After acquiring the data through interviews and from the manufacturer’s website we have cross analysed the wide variety of waterless toilet products which are available in the market. We have selected 11 manufacturers around the world according to the technology they used in the toilet system and the market share. A table with list of manufacturers have created along with the different characteristics of the products like type model, capacity, TRL, market and price. As we have to identify the maturity of the technology, we have used the Technology readiness level created by NASA. We have selected 3 major products of each manufacturer where some of the manufacturer had only 2 products available in the market and created different tables for analysing the specific characteristics and technology maturity level on the basis of Technology readiness level. From the specifications and the manufacturers data S-Curve is plotted which will be helpful for identifying the technology life cycle of each products.
We have created a technology-market portfolio of five different products which are technically advanced and having the market acceptance. The portfolio is a 3x3 matrix which highlights the link between technological and commercial functions. The 3x3 matrix should be used to evaluate the strengths and weakness of the technology as well as the market (Ingaldi and Zhuravskaya, 2018) where the matrix will also help to define the relationship of technology uncertainty and threats of the enterprise. Thus, different elements can be included in the matrix and we have added major elements like current technology position and rated technology development for the technology matrix.
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5. DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
As part of the thesis work, we have categorised the data collection into 2 major division. Primary data and the secondary data. Primary data is considered as the collection of real time data which is obtained by a face to face interview. But the pandemic situation created because of the Covid-19 we are used to have interviews via online platforms. We have conducted 2 online interviews with Mr. Mikael Billsund, CEO of the Separett as part of collecting valuable information and knowledge from an industry expert. For the secondary data collection, we have used the websites, company profiles and annual reports of the manufacturers. Most of the manufacturers have provided Youtube video demonstration for each and every product. These videos helped us to gather more knowledge about the technical aspects of different waterless toilet systems.
As part of the sustainable sanitation lots of manufacturers have turned themselves into the manufacturing of waterless toilets along with the production of water-based toilets. There are some companies which established as the manufacturer for waterless toilets in the early years. Since then innovations and improvements have made to the toilet solutions in regard of simplicity, design and user friendliness. We have collected data from different companies and manufacturers regarding their products, technology, key suppliers and how the R&D working for the future of the waterless toilets. Table 1 shows the compilation of some of the commercially available toilet models which are popular in the market. Models are differed according to the variety of types, capacity, and the price which are higher compared to the flush based toilets. Even though, life cycle costs, energy use and greenhouse emissions are lower compared to the water flushed toilets due to reduced operational costs. In order to identify the maturity level of the technology used in each product we have used the advantage of Technology Readiness Level (TRL) invented by NASA.
We have analysed each and every product of the different manufacturers and come up with a synthesis on our perspective where each product can be scaled according to the maturity level of TRL. For categorizing the major data table (Table 1), we have selected the most advanced toilet technology system used by the particular manufacturer and marked the TRL based on that particular product. We have chosen the same path for analysing and scaling the maturity level of each products of the manufacturer in the sub sections provided for manufacturers listed in Table 1.
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Table 1: List of waterless toilet manufacturers and products available in the market
Manufacturers have their products with different capacity where is it is designed or calculated according to the number of people, some specifies the number of uses and whether the use is full time or part time like the loading of the waste is estimated for daily or occasional visitor use. All of the products vary in the capacity is not because of the manufacturers and their production, it is due to the lack of consistency in how toilet capacity presented and the lack of standardized or established design guidelines for waterless toilets. Size of the composting tanks is fixed in most of the time and it can be changed or modified by adding more tanks according to the number of people. Most of the American and European countries have regulations which consisting of different rules on manufacturing, installation and operation of the toilets especially with the use of compost. All these regulations should be come into consideration before investing in the waterless toilet.
Manufacturers with different waterless toilet solutions are all around the world and we have selected 11 manufacturers among them. Manufacturers was selected on the basis of the wide variety of products they have in the market and according to the use of technology with respect to time.
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5.1. BIOLAN
Biolan is a Finland based company focussing on the ecological products having a wide variety of waterless toilet products. Biolan waterless urinal is made from robust moulded plastic. The waterless urinal is especially handy if using a urine diverting toilet so that men can stand and pee as normal (Biolan Waterless Urinal - Avloppscenter, 2020). The urinal has its own vent so that urine odours are vented out of the room naturally. It comes in a stain resistant dark brown colour. Ideally spray down every day that it is in use with a mild cleaning solution. The main advantages of the Biolan waterless toilets are consider to be ,this type of the toilets doesn’t need electricity to operate or any other special fluids, Odourless vented urinal, Stain resistant brown colour, Useful to collect urine for fertiliser, Biolan non electric fan optional and can easily installed in the cabin or outside were the public places.
Three types of waterless urinal technology. Oil or chemical cartridges - urine passes through an oil or chemical-based barrier which is then supposed to form a seal which reduces odours. (How URIMAT waterless urinals work, n.d.). Using this system requires expensive cartridges to be replaced every few months, and the maintenance costs are high, particularly since the oil seal can easily be accidentally broken, for example by a cleaner washing a bucket of water down the urinal. Sleeve technology - urine passes through a sleeve and then through a seal into the waste system. Using this system can also be expensive as the sleeves need to be regularly replaced. Plus, the seal needs to remain moist which can lead to some hygiene and odour issues.
Fig 13: (a) (b) (c)
(a): Biolan composting toilet Eco, (b): Dry toilet, (c): Biolan separating toilet. (Products - www.biolan.com, 2020)
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The table below shows the characteristics and features of the waterless toilets manufactured by Biolan.
Convenience in Automatic/ Company Product Composting Ventilation waste Electricity TRL Manual management
Solid waste Biolan and Composting Natural Manual Medium No 6 household toilet Eco biowaste Additional Biolan Dry BIOLAN No Piping Manual High No 9 toilet required Biolan Additional seperating No Piping Manual High No 9 dry toilet required
Table 2: Biolan models and characteristics
We have selected three major toilet products of Biolan from their wide variety of products which are using the waterless toilet technology. The basic design of Biolan is the composting toilet which is called by the name Eco with a TRL of 6 as it requires more innovations for the base design. This is the low-profile model and further innovations are carried out with respect to this model. Dry toilet is the top end model of the Eco with a maturity level of TRL 9. Compared to the Eco product, dry toilet model has travelled far with the design and convenience. Toilets with technology for separating wastes are having high demand compared to other waterless toilet products and thus comes the most innovative product of Biolan called the separating toilet with TRL 9. The maturity level of the product’s performance with regards to time is plotted in the S-curve below.
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Fig 14: S curve for Biolan toilet products
With the help of S-curve, product performance with respect to time can be evaluated which in turn also helps to determine the level of maturity of the products. The first generation of Biolan’s product is the Biolan composting toilet ECO which we have considered as the base model of the manufacturer and with TRL 6. By moving with time, the product have made an innovative change to dry toilet with TRL 9 which is much advanced than the base model. Third generation product is the separating dry toilet with TRL 9 and is the most advanced toilet technology of the manufacturer. All these innovations are made to the product in accordance with time and market demands and all three products are available in the market too.
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5.2. BIOLET
Biolet is the United states distributor for composting toilets built in Sweden. Nature does its own composting. In warm weather, natural aerobic soil microorganisms digest and transform leaves, grass and other organic material into hygienic, non-offensive soil compost. This in run adds nutrients for new plant growth and retains moisture in the soil. BioLet unites this natural process with patented technology to accelerate and optimise biological decomposition, evaporate excess liquid and vent odours and water vapour all within an attractive home appliance that is easy to use and economical to operate (BioLet Composting Toilet 15, 2020).
(a) (b) (c)
Fig 15: (a): Biolet 15, (b): Biolet 25, (c): Biolet 65, (BioLet Composting Toilet 15, 2020)
Convenience Automatic/ in Company Product Composting Ventilation Electricity TRL Manual waste management
With manual Exhaust Biolet 15 mixer and Manual High Yes 6 fan heater With automatic Exhaust Biolet 25 Automatic High Yes 9 BIOLET mixer and fan heater With automatic Exhaust Biolet 65 Automatic High Yes 9 mixer and fan heater Table 3: Biolet models and characteristics
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Biolet 15 is the origin product of composting toilet for the company. Just becoming the base model for the company with a TRL of 6. Most of the innovations are carried out in this platform and company is marketing the final version of the product. Company have upgraded the technology by the automatic mixing technology which is replaced with the manual mixing of Biolet 15. Major innovation happened in the working as it became fully automatic compared to the base model. Biolet 25 and Biolet 65 shares the same technology with a difference of capacity handling. Biolet 25 can be rated for 3 people full time use with TRL 9 whereas Biolet 65 can be rated for 4 people full time use. The maturity level of the product’s performance with regards to time is plotted in the S-curve below.
Fig 16: S curve for Biolet toilets
With the help of S-curve, product performance with respect to time can be evaluated which in turn also helps to determine the level of maturity of the products. The first generation of Biolet’s product is the Biolet 15 which we have considered as the base model of the manufacturer and with TRL 6. By moving with time, the product have made an innovative change to Biolet 25 with TRL 9 by changing the manual use to automatic which is similar for the Biolet 65 which differs only with the capacity thus it also has the TRL 9. All these innovations are made to the product in accordance with time and market demands and all three products are available in the market too.
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5.3. CLIVUS MULTRUM
Clivus composting systems have been used in parks, commercial buildings, and homes as the sole method of treating toilet and urinal waste. The composting process is reliable, convenient and safe (Science and Technology | How the Clivus Multrum Works | Clivus New England, 2020). Its results are both conservative and productive; water is saved from use as a carriage medium and the fertilizer content in excreta is made available for reuse. The Clivus system uses aerobic mesophilic decomposition to slowly break down both urine and faeces into stable compounds within the composting system. The Clivus design separates urine from faeces.
Fig: 17, Clivus Multrum Foam Flush waterless toilet (Clivus Multrum, Inc.: Manufacturer of Composting Toilets and Greywater Systems since 1973, 2020)
As urine moves by gravity to the lowest point of the composting unit, bacterial action causes a chemical transformation that converts the chemically unstable components of urine (urea and ammonia), into a liquid end-product containing nitrite and nitrate. This liquid end-product is biologically and chemically stable and contains nutrients which are valuable for fertilizer. The liquid end-product is generated at a rate of about one gallon for every 20 uses and, in most cases, is automatically pumped from the compost chamber into a separate storage tank (Science and Technology | How the Clivus Multrum Works | Clivus New England, 2020).
Composting is the bio-chemical decomposition of organic matter by aerobic organisms, i.e., organisms which get oxygen from the atmosphere and give off carbon dioxide. Composting takes place in all soils which support plant and animal life (Clivus Multrum Composting Toilets | Brands, 2020). The Clivus systems employ the same process in the controlled environment of the compost chamber and, therefore, cannot produce methane. This process is distinct from anaerobic decomposition, which takes place naturally in water-saturated environments such as
35 | Page swamps, and is typical of septic tanks. Anaerobic, or liquid-saturated, conditions produce methane and the offensive odours associated with septic systems. Organisms in the composter include bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, arthropods, and earthworms, and are added manually once the system is operating. Energy, carbon dioxide and water vapor are released by the organic matter in faeces through the activity of the composting organisms. A less chemically complex, more chemically stable substance rich in organic matter is produced. Faeces volume, which is mostly water, is reduced by over 90%. Temperatures in the composters remain in the middle, or mesophilic, range (65-113°F). Potential pathogens in faeces are, therefore, not destroyed by heat. Those pathogens that require an aqueous environment die quickly in the non-saturated condition of the compost chamber. Others die because of the intense competition for nutrients; still others are consumed by predators which populate the system. The biological content of the dry end-product is similar to that found in topsoil. As a measure of its stability, the dry end-product from the Clivus system contains less than 200 MPN (Most Probable Number) of faecal coliform per 100 grams. This meets the level required under National Sanitation Foundation Standard 41 for Non-saturated Systems. The dry end-product contains a wide array of plant nutrients and is intended to be used as a fertilizer/soil conditioner. Its use may or may not be regulated by local authorities.
Urine is also transformed by the activity of microorganisms. As compared to faeces, urine contains most of the nitrogen. The primary form of nitrogen in urine is urea. Left alone, urea will degrade into ammonia and carbon dioxide. Bacteria in the compost unit (specifically Nitrobacter and Nitrosomonas) prevent this degradation and, instead, convert urea into nitrite and nitrate. That these are forms of nitrogen required for plant growth indicates the value of the compost for nutrient recycling. The liquid end-product from the Clivus system contains less than 200 MPN of faecal coliform per 100 ml, the same EPA standard for swimming quality water. This also meets the level required under National Sanitation Foundation Standard 41 for Non-saturated Systems. The nitrogen-rich liquid end-product is intended to be used as a fertilizer. Use of the liquid-end product as a fertilizer may or may not be regulated by local authority.
The table below shows the characteristics and features of the waterless toilets manufactured by Biolet
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Convenience in Automatic/ Company Product Composting Ventilation waste Electricity TRL Manual management
Clivus With manual composting Natural Manual Low No 6 mixing toilet CLIVUS Foam mixed MULTRUM Clivus Foam with compost No Fan Manual Medium No 6 flush toilet compatible soap
Table 4: Clivus Multrum models and characteristics
With the help of S-curve, product performance with respect to time can be evaluated which in turn also helps to determine the level of maturity of the products. Toilet products of Clivus Multrum are in the TRL 6 as both the products mentioned in the table requires more innovations and technology assistance as compared to other manufacturers. The Foam flush toilet technology is the upgraded technology they have but more advancements have happened in the technology in recent years. The maturity level of the product’s performance with regards to time is plotted in the S-curve below.
Fig 18: S curve for Clivus Multrum toilets
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5.4. ECOETHIC TOILETS
The MullToa are Consider to be the absolutely and most advanced Waterless Composting Toilets. With many progressive European features, these fully automatic models will provide years of trouble-free service with very simple maintenance (Simranpreet, 2012). Designed for home, cottage, cabin, boathouse or bunkie, the MullToa 65 and MullToa 55 both feature LED maintenance sensors. The MullToa 65 & MullToa 55 are the only composting toilet to carry the Svan Ecolabel (Nordic EcoLabel) which both having a TRL of 6 as it needs technological advancement compared to the particular product of other manufacturers. This certification is the most prestigious approval in Scandinavia, the world's largest market for composting toilets and is the most thorough testing for closed toilet system (ECOETHIC - WATERLESS COMPOSTING TOILETS, 2020).
MullToa unites the natural composting process with advanced Swedish technology accelerating and optimizing biological decomposition, evaporating excess liquid and exhausting odours. Within an elegant bathroom fixture that is easy to use and economical to operate
(a) (b) (c)
Fig 19: (a) Mulltoa 25, (b): Mulltoa 55, (c): Mulltoa 65 (ECOETHIC - WATERLESS COMPOSTING TOILETS, 2020)
The closed-system Mulltoa's are fully automatic electric toilets that anticipate your every move (ECOETHIC - WATERLESS COMPOSTING TOILETS, 2020). Sitting on the toilet seat opens the trap doors; closing the toilet seat lid activates the stainless-steel mixing mechanism that efficiently breaks down paper and distributes moisture into the compost material in the
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upper chamber. Material in the upper chamber is finished in the lower chamber and eventually emptied. The MullToa 65 and MullToa 55 both feature LED maintenance indicators to let you know when it is time to empty the lower chamber. The non-composted portion and the dry, composted portion are kept separate. A fan circulates warm air under and around the compost for fast decomposition and evaporation of liquid (More hot poop on composting toilets | TreeHugger, 2020). A float switch operates and additional heater (MullToa 65 & 55) if excess liquid is detected. Once a week or as needed, mulch is added through the toilet seat opening.
The table below shows the characteristics and features of the waterless toilets manufactured by Ecoethic.
Convenience in Automatic/ Company Product Composting Ventilation waste Electricity TRL Manual management
By creating Additional MullToa 25 moisture with piping is Automatic High Yes 6 mulch required By creating Additional High, LED ECOETHIC MullToa 55 moisture with piping is Automatic Yes 6 indication mulch required By creating Exhaust High, LED MullToa 65 moisture with Automatic Yes 6 fan indication mulch
Table 5: Ecoethic models and characteristics
With the help of S-curve, product performance with respect to time can be evaluated which in turn also helps to determine the level of maturity of the products. We have considered MullToa 25 as the base model for the manufacturer and other products like MullToa 55 and MullToa 65 are similar to each other. All these products have made changes in time but not with an advancement system technology but with the user convenience. The manufacturer has lot more to go in the innovation with their system and we have rated all 3 products with TRL 6. Even
39 | Page though they have made changes in their base model with time, we have plotted the performance of these products in S-Curve respectively.
The maturity level of the product’s performance with regards to time is plotted in the S-curve below.
Fig 20: S curve for Ecoethic toilets
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5.5. ECO JOHN TOILETS
Ecojohn is the waterless toilet manufacturers started their venture in the early 1990’s who is having a world-wide market for their products. Ecojohn’s TinyJohn is a compact and sleek designed waterless self-contained gas fired toilet that incinerates the waste into a sterile ash that needs to be emptied periodically (EcoJohn SR12 PN серии Безводный Опаляющий Туалет (с изображениями) | Туалет, 2020). Ecojohn toilet has two models which are capable to showcase their specification, while comparing to other model and technology designs. The TinyJohn models provide ecological, economical, and logistical benefits and are great in areas where a standard toilet is not practical to install basically. Catalytic Converter will clean the air going outside, which will reduce any odour (if any). It will also keep the exhaust fan clean and requires less maintenance (ECOJOHN - Go Anywhere - Incinerating Toilets, 2020).
(a) (b)
Fig 21: (a): Big John, (b): Tiny John, (ECOJOHN - Go Anywhere - Incinerating Toilets, 2020)
The table below shows the characteristics and features of the waterless toilets manufactured by Ecojohn
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Convenience in Automatic/ Company Product Composting Ventilation waste Electricity TRL Manual management
Tiny John Additional Gas fired Incinerating piping Automatic High Yes 6 composting toilets required ECO JOHN Big John Additional Gas fired Incinerating piping Automatic High Yes 6 composting toilets required
Table 6: Ecojohn models and characteristics
Both Ecojohn products differs in the capacity of the toilet whereas they share the same technology. TRL is 6 as they require more technological advancements compared to other manufacturers in the market. The maturity level of the product’s performance with regards to time is plotted in the S-curve below.
Fig 22: S curve for Eco John toilets
With the help of S-curve, product performance with respect to time can be evaluated which in turn also helps to determine the level of maturity of the products. Both Tiny John and Big John are similar in their respective technology while having a difference of people usage and capacity. Tiny John is used for domestic purposes where are Big John can be used in office, restaurant or malls. The manufacturer has lot more to go in the innovation with their system
42 | Page and we have rated all 2 products with TRL 6. Even though they have made changes in their base model with time, we have plotted the performance of these products in S-Curve respectively.
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5.6. ECOLET TOILETS
Ecolet waterless toilets has fully automatic mixing system mechanism. Simply lower the seat after each use and the unit does the rest. There is no risk installing in household purpose. The Ecolet 65ai and 55ai (the designation ai stands for auto intelligence) belongs to a new generation of Ecolet that adjusts its capacity. Ecolet works for many users in close order without waiting time, even the "flush" is automatic. Ecolet composts waste and paper directly, using a sophisticated technology that makes it simple and worry-free for those using the toilet. The Ecolet has been in the Australian market for over 15 years (Ecolet - Eco-Friendly Waterless Toilets - Ecolet - Composting and Waterless Toilets, 2020).
(a) (b) (c)
Fig 23: (a): NE Separera 30, (b): Ecolet 55ai, (c): Ecolet 65ai, (Ecolet - Eco-Friendly Waterless Toilets - Ecolet - Composting and Waterless Toilets, 2020)
Convenience in Automatic/ Company Product Composting Ventilation waste Electricity TRL Manual management
EcoLet Ne Composting Exhaust Manual Medium Yes 9 separera 30 without heater fan High, Notifies Composting Exhaust ECOLET EcoLet 55ai Manual in Display Yes 9 without heater fan screen High, Notifies Composting Exhaust EcoLet 65ai Manual in Display Yes 9 without heater fan screen Table 7: Ecolet models and characteristics
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Ecolet products are comparatively advanced compared to other products as they have more innovative products under their pocket. Thus, they can be rated to TRL 9. Three mentioned products have changed according to the time and usage capacity with uniform technical development in each of the product. The maturity level of the product’s performance with regards to time is plotted in the S-curve below.
Fig 24: S curve for Ecolet toilets
With the help of S-curve, product performance with respect to time can be evaluated which in turn also helps to determine the level of maturity of the products. Ecolet Ne Sparera 30 is considered as the base model for this manufacturer and we have rated with TRL 9 as the product is having same updated technology in the market. Heater technology is also utilized by the incinerating toilet in more advanced way.By moving with time, the product have made an innovative change to Ecolet 55ai with TRL 9 and the Ecolet 65ai which differs only with the capacity thus it also has the TRL 9. All these innovations are made to the product in accordance with time and market demands and all three products are available in the market too.
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5.7. ECOTECH TOILETS
The division of Sun-Mar engineers designed these Sun-Mar toilets for Ecotech which are suitable for a low-profile unit which compliments to any bathroom. They have designed and patented the technology which have a variable diameter bio-drum. This is designed to maintain the uninterrupted lines of the compact and the bio-drum will mix and aerate the compost.
(a) (b) (c)
Fig 25: (a): SunMar Compact, (b): SunMar Excel, (c): SunMar Excel Non electric, (EcoTech Products: Innovative Environmentally Sustainable Products, 2020)
The table below shows the characteristics and features of the waterless toilets manufactured by Ecotech
Convenience in Automatic/ Company Product Composting Ventilation waste Electricity TRL Manual management
Requires SunMar Composting additional Manual Medium No 6 compact with Bio-drum piping Exhaust SunMar Composting fan ECOTECH Manual Medium No 6 Excel with Bio-drum provision included SunMar Composting Exhaust Manual High Yes 9 Excel electric with Bio-drum fan
Table 8: Ecotech models and characteristics
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From the characteristics of SunMar compact and SunMar excel it is analysed that the technology they shared is same and the accessories provided with the product during the installation is different. Both the toilets are having medium level of convenience with a TRL of 6. The upgraded product is the SunMar excel electric which says to have high level of convenience and rated with a TRL of 9. The maturity level of the product’s performance with regards to time is plotted in the S-curve below.
Fig 26: S Curve for Ecotech toilets
With the help of S-curve, product performance with respect to time can be evaluated which in turn also helps to determine the level of maturity of the products. Sun-Mar Compact is the first- generation product which we have considered as the base model of the manufacturer and with TRL 6 and this applied for the advanced model called Sun-Mar excel with TRL 6 whereas both shares the same system technology and differs only in capacity. By moving with time, the product have made an innovative change to Sun-Mar excel non electric with TRL 9 by having high convenient level compared to other products of the manufacturer. All these innovations are made to the product in accordance with time and market demands and all three products are available in the market too.
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5.8. ENVIROLET TOILETS
Composting is simply nature's method of renewing and preserving itself. In nature, decayed organic material, whether plant or animal, gradually decomposes and becomes either water or enriched soil, very much like your garden compost, but the ongoing preservation of our precious lakes, rivers and streams is a problem that both ourselves and our children must accept responsibility for. Most conventional toilet systems such as septic tanks were not developed with the environment in mind, so they are often a major cause of unnecessary pollution (Composting Explained, 2020).
(a) (b)
(c)
Fig 27: (a) Waterless self-contained system, (b): MS 10 Waterless self-contained system, (c): Waterless Remote system (AC), (Envirolet Composting Toilets – Envirolet USA, 2020)
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The table below shows the characteristics and features of the waterless toilets manufactured by Envirolet
Convenience in Automatic/ Company Product Composting Ventilation waste Electricity TRL Manual management
Waterless Exhaust Self- self- fan contamination Manual Medium Yes 6 contained provision with heater system included MS 10 Exhaust Waterless Self- fan ENVIROLET self- contamination Manual Medium Yes 6 provision contained with heater included system Waterless Self- Exhaust Remote contamination Manual High Yes 9 fan system (AC) with heater
Table 9: Envirolet models and characteristics
From the characteristics of Waterless self-contained system and MS 10 Waterless self- contained system it is analysed that the technology they shared is same and the accessories provided with the product during the installation is different. Both the toilets are having medium level of convenience with a TRL of 6. The upgraded product is the Waterless Remote system (AC) which says to have high level of convenience and rated with a TRL of 9.
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The maturity level of the product’s performance with regards to time is plotted in the S-curve below.
Fig 28: S curve for Envirolet toilets
With the help of S-curve, product performance with respect to time can be evaluated which in turn also helps to determine the level of maturity of the products. Waterless self-contained system is the first-generation product which we have considered as the base model of the manufacturer and with TRL 6 and this applied for the advanced model called MS 10 Waterless self-contained system with TRL 6 whereas both shares the same system technology and differs only in capacity. By moving with time, the product have made an innovative change to Waterless Remote system (AC) with TRL 9 by having high convenient level compared to other products of the manufacturer. All these innovations are made to the product in accordance with time and market demands and all three products are available in the market too.
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5.9. NATURE LOO TOILETS
Nature loo toilet pedestals are designed to resemble normal flushing toilets, but without that ugly and wasteful water cistern. They have both conventional and contemporary styled pedestals. There is a choice of timber or solid white seats. The processing is uncomplicated and easy to maintain. Nature Loo offers the opportunity to start with a low-cost small-scale unit and expand capacity later as your family grows or you permanently move into a house you were previously building. The modular batch system allows the capacity of your system to be expanded by buying an extra chamber, without needing to buy a whole new toilet (About Ecoflo Nature Loo Composting Toilets | ZingBokashi, 2020).
Nature Loo offers compact modular split systems (composter under the floor) and good capacity self-contained units (the entire unit is above the floor). They have low profile split system composting toilets requiring just 650 mm clearance between the ground and the bathroom floor. Since many people prefer a split system this is a real design and cost advantage over other manufacturers’ toilets that can require over 1 meter for installation under the floor. Nature Loo’s composting toilets with state approvals are typically 30% less expensive than competing toilets that handle the same number of people. They are able to do this because of our economy of scale, and because we use nature to provide heat to accelerate the composting process. This allows us to keep the design of the modular and expandable chambers small and uncomplicated.
(a) (b) (c)
Fig 29: (a): NatureLoo Classic, (b): NatureLoo Excelet 1, (c): NatureLoo Excelet 2, (Nature Loo | Composting Waterless Toilets | Environmentally Friendly - Nature Loo | Environmental Waste and Wastewater Management Systems, 2020)
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The table below shows the characteristics and features of the waterless toilets manufactured by NatureLoo
Convenience in Automatic/ Company Product Composting Ventilation waste Electricity TRL Manual management
Exhaust Double NatureLoo fan and chamber Manual Medium Yes 6 Classic transformer combustion (Optional) Exhaust 55 L Double NATURE NatureLoo fan and chamber Manual Medium Yes 6 LOO excelet 1 transformer combustion (Optional) 55 L Double Exhaust NatureLoo chamber fan and Manual Medium Yes 9 excelet 2 combustion transformer
Table 10: NatureLoo models and characteristics
From the characteristics of NatureLoo Classic and NatureLoo excelet 1 it is analysed that the technology they shared is same and the accessories provided with the product during the installation is different. Both the toilets are having medium level of convenience with a TRL of 6. The upgraded product is the NatureLoo excelet 2 which says to have high level of convenience and rated with a TRL of 9. The maturity level of the product’s performance with regards to time is plotted in the S-curve below.
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Fig 30: S Curve for NatureLoo Toilets
With the help of S-curve, product performance with respect to time can be evaluated which in turn also helps to determine the level of maturity of the products. NatureLoo Classic is the first- generation product which we have considered as the base model of the manufacturer and with TRL 6 and this applied for the advanced model called NatureLoo excelet 1 self-contained system with TRL 6 whereas both shares the same system technology and differs only in capacity. By moving with time, the product have made an innovative change to NatureLoo excelet 2 with TRL 9 by having high convenient level compared to other products of the manufacturer. All these innovations are made to the product in accordance with time and market demands and all three products are available in the market too.
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5.10. PIKKUVIHREA/PHOENIX TOILETS
Green toilet has a capacity of 330 litres. When the container is nearly full, it can be either emptied and returned or replaced with a spare container. The waste can then be left to decompose either inside the Green Toilet spare container or in a separate composter. Wheels make it easy to move the tank. For all year-round use, the Green Toilet can be equipped with a heat conductor. Green Toilet has a special capacity to compost due to its capillary floor which allows the urea to be absorbed back to the mass to speed up the composting process. Rest of the liquid evaporates through the ventilation pipe.
(a) (b) (c)
Fig 31: (a): Pikkuvihrea separating dry toilet, (b) Composting toilet, (c): Freezing dry toilet, (Pikkuvihrea is dry toilet expert, 2020)
The table below shows the characteristics and features of the waterless toilets manufactured by Pikkuvihrea
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Convenience Automatic/ in Company Product Composting Ventilation Electricity TRL Manual waste management
Additional Separating NO piping Manual Medium No 6 dry toilet required
Composting Manual PIKKUVIHREA Natural Manual Low No 6 dry toilet composting
Freezing dry No NO Manual Medium Yes 9 toilet ventilation
Table 11: Pikkuvihrea models and characteristics
From the characteristics of NatureLoo Classic and NatureLoo excelet 1 it is analysed that the technology they shared is same and the accessories provided with the product during the installation is different. Both the toilets are having medium level of convenience with a TRL of 6. The upgraded product is the NatureLoo excelet 2 which says to have high level of convenience and rated with a TRL of 9. The maturity level of the product’s performance with regards to time is plotted in the S-curve below.
Fig 32: S Curve for Pikkuvirhea toilets
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With the help of S-curve, product performance with respect to time can be evaluated which in turn also helps to determine the level of maturity of the products. Composting dry toilet is the first-generation product which we have considered as the base model of the manufacturer and with TRL 6. Second generation product is the separating dry toilet with TRL 6 whereas both shares the same system technology with a difference in the technology where wastes like faeces and urine are separated and treated. By moving with time, the product have made an innovative change to freezing instead of combustion. The particular product is rated with TRL 9 by having high convenient level compared to other products of the manufacturer. Comparing the technology of other products, freezing dry toilet is far different than the others. All these innovations are made to the product in accordance with time and market demands and all three products are available in the market too.
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5.11. SEPARETT TOILETS
Separett is a Swedish origin company established in the year 1976 and having technically advanced products in the market having a branch in Finland and subsidiaries in the USA. ‘CINDI’ the family of Incinerating toilets are getting increasingly popular all over the world due to the fact that they reduce the humanure to a small amount of ash – easy to handle and can be used as a fertilizer which requires less require electricity and air to function. Their incinerating toilets has the highest safety standards and are equipped with a number of safety features that are independent of each other. They are also equipped with a mechanical overheating protection that only can be reset manually – ensuring a safe and comfortable ownership.
CINDI has a user-friendly display with easy menu access where you can adjust everything from language to burning time. The display also announces when it is time to empty the ash pan when you need to perform a cleaning torque (cleaning of ash pan and smoke pipe) and when it is time for service (according to service intervals) (Electric/Incinerating toilets, 2020).
CINDI family is designed and optimized for the cottage or Tiny house but can also be used in your home or in a guest house and has the capacity to handle the humanure from up to 6 people on a regular basis. The toilet is used whenever it’s needed, even if someone has just visited it. The toilet keeps track on the number of visits and adapts the incineration time to ensure that the waste product is always ash. It is therefore important to start the incineration program
(a) (b) (c)
Fig 33: (a): Freezing toilet, (b): Urine diverting toilet, (c): Incinerating toilet, (Separett - Waterless toilets, 2020)
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The table below shows the characteristics and features of the waterless toilets manufactured by Separret
Convenience in Automatic/ Company Product Composting Ventilation waste Electricity TRL Manual management
Freezing No No Manual Medium Yes 9 toilet Chamber Urine consists of SEPARETT diverting No Manual High No 9 compostable toilet waste bags Incinerating Burning No Both High Yes 9 toilet chamber
Table 12: Separret models and characteristics
Separret products are comparatively advanced compared to other products as they have more innovative products under their pocket. Thus, they can be rated to TRL 9. Three mentioned products have changed according to the time and usage capacity with uniform technical development in each of the product. The maturity level of the product’s performance with regards to time is plotted in the S-curve below.
Fig 34: S curve for Separret Toilets
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6. FINDINGS
Most of the manufacturers have their own designed products which are applicable for different occasions. Most of the products are typical composting toilets and they have revenue from their products even though there are other products which are better in technology and other specifications. When considering the revenue incinerating toilets are covering up the market with their most sophisticated technology and urine diversion toilets tops in the list with number of sales. This scenario is same for the Swedish based company called Separett says the CEO Mr Mikael Billsund and he also admit that incinerating toilet is not the future. Pin pointing the above statement by the CEO of Separret, another manufacturer from Finland called Pikkuvihrea declared in their own website that they have decided to give up the production of Incinerating toilets as they identified that the burning toilet waste is highly non-ecological. Yet another reason reported by the officials is the high energy consumption and the loss of valuable nutrients including some technical issues. All of the company executives who we have interviewed agrees with the limitation in the waste management system of waterless toilets as it requires more human efforts compared to the water-based toilet systems and they call it the “interface”. All the companies are planning to avoid the so-called interface and high investments are made for the same by the manufacturers. Companies also admitting that customers are also getting denied in purchasing new products because of the improper waste management. The waste management should be clean and easy to handle and this is what customers are expecting from the manufacturers and they are trying their hard to rectify this. Separett is planning a new product for the future with a design which is waterless, no plumbing connection or sewage connection with low energy consumption and zero waste. All this can be happened once they find the solution for the interface.
The study has long been interested in understanding the drivers of technological change. In this context, studies show that technological change is driven by two main factors, namely (a) technology push, i.e. factors that increase the supply of technological options by directly fostering advances in science and technology and (b) demand-pull, i.e. factors that stimulate the demand for or affect the prices of specific technologies (Leibowicz, Krey and Grubler, 2016). Based on our findings, incinerating toilet will be a failure technology and bilevel modelling framework of this analysis captures three critical market failures imperfect appropriability of R&D, a negative production externality associated with the existing good, and imperfect competition. The numerical simulations of this subsection shed light on how these market failures influence outcomes such as product R&D expenditures and expected
59 | Page welfare, and affect the optimal combination of technology-push and demand-pull policy interventions. There are many factors which we can analyse whether the technology or product will exist in the market. Firms generally engage less than the socially optimal level of innovation because they cannot appreciate all the benefits of their own innovative efforts. This is the case as the benefits of innovating spill over across firms, a phenomenon which has been documented empirically. (Bernstein and Nadiri, 1988) estimated inter-industry spill overs and found that variable costs in each industry they examined decreased significantly in response to R&D in certain other industries.
Technology-push can reduce the private cost of engaging in innovation and demand-pull instruments that create or expand markets to increase the private payoff to successful innovation (Nemet, 2009). Technology-push options include public R&D, government funding of private sector R&D, and support for higher education to enlarge the pool of innovators. Demand-pull options include subsidies for consumer purchases of new technologies, direct government procurement, and stronger intellectual property protection to increase appropriability. This technology-push emphasis was consistent with the traditional linear model of innovation, describing sequential stages of research, development, demonstration, and diffusion (Gallagher et al., 2012). Demand-pull hypothesis, innovation is a function of market demand. Early support was provided by (Schmookler,1966), who estimated a strong, positive relationship between patent applications from capital-goods-producing sectors and investment downstream in capital-goods-using industries. Dasgupta and Stiglitz,1980 showed that total R&D expenditure and R&D expenditure per firm increase with market size (Technology-push, Demand-pull, and Strategic R&D ... - usaee, 2020).
6.1.TECHNOLOGY – MARKET MATRIX
To identify the waterless technologies with higher in technology and market share, we have created a portfolio analysis on the basis of technology and market. For that we have created a matrix for both technology and market which called as technology matrix and market matrix. In technology matrix, products are analysed on the basis of Current Technology Position (CTP) and Rate of Technology Development (RTD). In the Y-axis CTP is placed with a scale of strong and weak whereas RTD is placed in the X-axis with a scale of high and low respectively. In the market matrix, X axis is suited with Growth Potential (GP) whereas Y-axis with Market Share (MS) with a scaling level from low to high. With the help of both matrixes, we will be able to identify the respective position of the waterless toilet products in the present scenario.
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For the analysis we have selected 5 different waterless toilet products of different manufacturers and the products are Incinerating toilet (A), Urine diversion toilet (B), Foam flush toilet (C), Vacuum toilet (D) and Freezing toilet (E). Figure 35 and 36 shows the technology and market portfolio analysis in a matrix model
TECHNOLOGY MATRIX
CTP Strong A D
B E
Weak C
High Low RTD
Fig:35 Technology Matrix
Market Matrix
MS High D B
E C A
Low
High Low GP
Fig:36 Market Matrix
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For the analysis of waterless toilet products with the use of technology and market portfolio we have selected 5 different waterless toilet products which are technically advanced wit respective of time and the ones which having more shares in the market. Each manufacturer described in the Table 1 is having different products with different technology specifications and we have selected common waterless toilet systems used by all the manufacturers. Apart from the use of smart toilet or intelligent toilet systems, incinerating toilets dominates other toilet technologies and it has the strongest current technology position and highest rate of technology development. But, when it comes to the market share, incinerating toilet cannot be considered as the leader in market. Market share is lower for the incinerating toilet because of the huge amount and customers will not accepting the product with a price tag out of their budget. Even the manufacturers are getting rid of incinerating toilet and thus it has lower growth potential.
Urine diversion toilet is the one which have both technology and market acceptance in a better way compared to incinerating toilet as it has medium level of current technology acceptance and higher level of rated technology development. From the primary data collection, we came to know that urine diversion toilets are creating revenues better than that of the incinerating toilet for the manufacturers. Thus, it is allocated with medium level of both market share and growth potential. Foam flush toilet is an outdated technology which is similar to that of the water based flush technology systems. Because of the convenience in using and the similarity to water bases systems, customers are having demand for the product and thus it shares a medium level of market share as same as that of the urine diversion toilet. When compared to the advanced technologies it cannot treated in a strong position as that of the urine diversion toilet.
Vacuum toilet is having the highest market share as it is used in the flights, trains and even in space shuttles which leads to have a greater accessibility to the customers. This technology is to be taken into account of most research purposes as it has the highest growth potential and is being used in different transportation mediums. Vacuum toilet technology serves high is market share and current technology position. Freezing toilet differs from all the above technologies where it does not use any heating instead of cooling the wastes. This might nit be accepted by the customers as the convenience in waste removal is not as good as that of the heating technologies.
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6.2. TECHNOLOGY AT PRESENT
New Zealand – based Scion Research, is developing a new type of toilet which uses pressure and microwave technology to treat sewage in the proper way to terminate the wastes from the domestic premises. The Research and development of Scion uses technology in large scale application which delivers a fair output, and is also used in sewage treatment which is generally known as wet oxidation. Wet oxidation is a hydrothermal treatment process that uses oxygen, high temperature and pressure to breakdown particles which helps to destroy the waste solids completely and terminate the Pathogens by oxidizing organic and inorganic matters under certain pressure between 0.5-20 MPa. The by-product is fertilizer which would be useful for agricultural purposes. The main challenge for above mentioned technology is to create a small system which is sufficient to maintain that much temperature and pressure safely inside the house, apartment or any public toilets. Dry composting toilet generally require more work compared to incinerating toilets or waterless urinals. Separett has designed toilet solution to meet your or public demands for comfort and quality. Pee Power is a technology that generates electricity using urine as a fuel (Uganda PEE POWER® Trial Success - UWE Bristol: News Releases, 2020). The team adapted a retrofitted toilet block with the Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) technology to enable access to the urine waste. With the help of local workers, they also constructed a small building to house the MFC stacks that generates power from urine. The electricity generated from Pee Power is sufficient to light the outside of the building and the pathway leading to the block. A critical element of the field trials is longevity. By installing Pee Power and having it running in remote areas they can test the long-term efficiency of this technology (Pee Power Trial Is A Success In Uganda - Green Energy News, 2020).
Technology advancements are happening around industries around the world so as the toilet industry. Recent one is the implementation of nano technology and the nano membrane toilet system. In Nanotechnology human waste disposal works by drying out poop into tiny solids that are free of pathogens. These end products are best utilized as fuel and crop-growing fertilizers. The technology allows for water from the pervaporation process to be condensed, sterilized, and safely stored for household use.
The Nano Membrane Toilet- Treating human waste onsite without external energy or water
The Nano Membrane Toilet will be able to treat human waste on-site without external energy or water. It is designed for single-household use (equivalent to 10 people) and will accept urine
63 | Page and faeces as a mixture. The flush uses a unique rotating mechanism without using any water whilst simultaneously blocking odour and the user’s view of the waste (Parker, n.d.).
Solids separation (faeces) is principally accomplished through sedimentation. Loosely bound water (mostly from urine) is separated using low glass transition temperature hollow-fibre membranes. The unique nanostructured membrane wall facilitates water transport in the vapour state rather than as a liquid state which yields high rejection of pathogens and some odorous volatile compounds. The water will be collected for reuse at the household level in washing or irrigation applications ([email protected], 2020).
Following release of unbound water, the residual solids are transported by mechanical screw into a combustor which will convert them into ash and energy. The energy will power the membrane processes, and there may be extra energy for charging mobile phones or other low voltage items. The Nano Membrane Toilet needs a waterless flush to reduce the amount of liquid that needs to be processed subsequently. A prototype was tested in a semi-public, institutional setting and in selected peri-urban households in eThekwini municipality, Republic of South Africa (Hennigs et al., 2019). The mechanism's functionality and users' perception of the flush were assessed. User perception varied depending on background: Users accustomed to porcelain water flush toilets were open to, yet reserved about the idea of using a waterless flush in their homes (Penn et al., 2017). Those who commonly use Urine Diversion Dehydration Toilets were far more receptive. The user-centred field trials were complemented by a controlled laboratory experiment, using synthetic urine, -faeces, and -menstrual blood, to systematically assess the efficiency of three swipe materials to clean the rotating bowl of the flush. A silicone rubber with oil-bleed-effect was found to be the best performing material for the swipe. Lubrication of the bowl prior to use further reduced fouling. The Nano Membrane Toilet will produce water as an output. When considering how this water could be reused locally smell is a really important factor in determining user acceptance. This paper describes a new method for quantifying faecal odour in liquids. It was trialled using some faecal contaminated urine that had been filtered by membranes that are being considered for the Nano Membrane Toilet (Parker, n.d.). Some membranes were better at blocking the volatile organic compounds that cause odour, but others blocked only the smelliest, giving a more pleasant odour overall.
New designs in a sustainable environment transform wastes into useful products like clean water, Fertilizers, electricity and animal feed. In general, the amount of nitrogen and
64 | Page phosphorus in the human excreta represent 40% of the nitrogen and 19% of the phosphorus of the world fertilizer consumption and human excreta contain rich nutrient such as nitrogen & phosphorous with help of new technology we deeply open the doors for a new innovation. Johkasou waste water treatment plant uses Bio Reactor system for highly advanced water treatment & Recycling stadium urine as Turf Fertilizers and with these methods or theory we consider a solution for the future implications. To be sustainable, decentralized systems must be low-cost, require little to no water and electricity to run, use locally available materials and bio-based processes, and be simple to operate and maintain. Sustainability also requires buy- in and ownership from the local community as well as policy support from local governments. Organizations like BORDA can become a helpful hand to develop a well sustain nations and company and entrepreneur R&D can collaborate their work which lead then successful implementation of new technologies.
Every innovative design or product have its own limitations and barriers, and the limitations for the waterless toilets are mentioned below. In this paper we will be concentrating on the challenges and techniques to rectify the same.
Odour from the urine tank and toilet Complication in cleaning the compositing toilet and urine tank Trouble with health issue Lack of spare parts
Generally, these are the common challenges and barriers for the waterless toilet. While comparing with the present scenario all the challenges have some sort of way to rectify in a perfect way. Most of the innovative firms provides platforms to explore their idea in an innovative way to rectify challenge that mentioned above. According to our study and information, the above-mentioned challenges are important and case to case it will differ with respect to the technology used in the waterless toilet. We assume that with reference of available sources and articles water less toilet is eco-friendly and this would be a move to achieve the balance between the living beings and nature.
In this thesis we are also finding an application for toilets which can be induced with the medical applications with supports of AI applications. Thus, it will be more help for maintaining a healthy lifestyle day today life. As mentioned above with collection of data and literature-review we will expand our research work.
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As artificial intelligence has been altering our homes and workplaces, our toilets were neglected. Even though Japanese companies have been selling high-tech toilets since the 1980s, they hadn’t gained much traction in the rest of the world. Kitchen and bath supplier Kohler just introduced its second-generation Numi 2.0 Intelligent toilet that comes equipped with LED lights that can change colour dynamically, built-in Amazon Alexa so you can inquire about the weather, ask Alexa questions and play your favourite tunes while relieving yourself; hands-free, motion-activated (and heated) lid, Bluetooth, bidet and dryer. In the case of a power outage, the toilet has an emergency flush feature (Numi 2.0 Intelligent toilet with KOHLER Konnect | Recent Press Releases | Press Room | KOHLER, 2020).
Numi 2.0 intelligent toilet with KOHLER Konnect is Kohler’s most advanced toilet. The Numi 2.0 offers personalized experiences that let users fine-tune every aspect of their experience to their exact preference, from ambient coloured lighting to wireless Bluetooth® music sync capability to the heated seat. Numi 2.0 delivers hands-free control, personalized cleansing functionality, and exceptional water efficiency. Numi 2.0 offers surround lighting around the base and back panel dynamic lighting illuminating the space with your choice of solid colours or dynamic lighting that gracefully moves throughout the lighting feature for an interactive and immersive colour experience in the bathroom space (Smart Faucets And Toilets Use Alexa To Listen To Your Conversations, 2020). Numi 2.0 will come equipped with embedded Amazon Alexa for easy voice control to active toilet features as well as Alexa commands such as checking weather, traffic, accessing news, etc. Features of Numi 2.0 with KOHLER Konnect can be controlled through voice-command, the KOHLER Konnect app, the remote or through internal sensors that created an automated experience.
Technical description of KOHLER are Embedded Amazon Alexa, warm-water cleansing, stainless steel wand with UV sanitization ,Adjustable water temperature , Pressure and spray, Heated seat and warm air dyer , Nightlight and dynamic ambient lighting , Automatic deodorization, Remote with titanium metallic finish , Automatic flush – dual flush options 1.0 gpf or 0.8 gpf, Automatic opening-closing lid, Hands-free opening/closing seat and Speakers with wireless streaming capability, water-proof design and high quality sound performance across full frequency range (from 78Hz to 20KHz) .
Toilets as a Health Tool smart toilets can actually play an important role in monitoring health at the hospital and at home. One toilet seat developed by the Rochester Institute of Technology contains devices that measure blood oxygenation levels, heart rate, and blood pressure to signal
66 | Page when someone is at risk for congestive heart failure. The device was part of a study to determine ways to reduce hospital readmission rates; nearly 70% of patients with congestive heart failure are readmitted within 90 days of discharge. Japanese firm Toto created one of the first smart toilets that could monitor health indicators in the early 2000s. It was able to monitor sugar levels in urine, check body weight, temperature and hormone levels and transmit the data to computers and doctors who could advise about fertility (Marr, 2020).
Sky toilet have more advantage than Numi 2.0 as it can measure the amount of urine flow by monitoring the water level in the toilet and changes in urine flow could signal a prostate or bladder concern. Flow Sky is a device that measures urine flow, at present some of the international hospital are used day today. With the medical device, the amount and flow rate of urine can be measured just by discharging urine in the toilet. Toto Flow Sky measures the water level being changed by urination by using a water level sensor. It converts the increase in water level into the amount of water and converts the speed of the increase into the flow rate of urine. The measurement of the flow rate is used for the medical examination of urology department and medical follow-up in an inpatients’ ward. Especially, for patients who are transfused before and after a surgery, the amount of urine is checked to confirm that the infusion solution has been appropriately taken in Other companies' projects focus on solutions that would allow the elderly and people with disabilities to live independently longer.
The I Toilet project targeted the needs of older persons who are living independently at home when using a toilet. The project aimed at developing an ICT enhanced toilet system, which is able to empower older persons to live more independently and with increased dignity. I Toilet also aimed at reducing the workload of the care persons when providing personal assistance on the toilet (Marr, 2020). The I Toilet created a toilet that could adjust the height and tilt of a toilet via voice commands and have sensors to detect the safety of people using them. This not only helps the people using them be more independent but also relieves strain on their caregivers. Existing height and tilt adjustable toilet modules served as base for adding several significant enhancements and services, e.g. control via voice, automatic recognition of and adaptation to user preferences when entering the toilet room, recognition of potentially dangerous situations (e.g. a fall) and other functionalities (e.g. interface to care documentation, providing guidance to persons) (About the iToilet Project, 2020). I Toilet uses a strictly user centred approach and included continuous ethical review and supervision. End-users were involved right from the beginning for eliciting user requirements and for participatory design activities.
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Expected benefits are: for primary end-users: support of body stability (individually adjustable height), support of sitting down and standing up process (dynamic adaptation of toilet), increased safety; for secondary user. The work load will be reduced and less physically demanding. Thirdly, for tertiary users (institutions) the toilet will enhance the care service offered and will enhance health and well-being of the employees by reduced physical demands during personal assistance provision (e.g. transfer wheelchair / toilet). This business model aims at a modular product with scalability and customisation of the functionality and services according to the individual customer’s needs and wishes.
What if the toilet in your home could monitor your health by analysing your daily waste?
This might be possible on a wide scale in the future. Discreetly Placed Sensors on the toil could retrieve the data that artificial algorithms could analyse to determine early signs of disease if there are other health issues that need to be addressed or manage conditions such as diabetes. Since toilets get used several times a day, it makes capturing data easy and part of a person's everyday routine. This consistent data could help us all shift to a more proactive response to healthcare. Smart toilets could also have an essential role in monitoring public health. With the help of data collected from smart toilets in public spaces in combination with the weather and other data from satellites, it could give global health professionals early warnings of a disease outbreak before it becomes a crisis. Since human waste leaves a lot of clues about a person's overall health, more consistent analysis of it could be beneficial. Many illnesses and ailments such as kidney disease, bladder issues and infections, cancer, and more leave tell-tale signs in urine and faeces that they have invaded the body.
Chemical analysis, cameras, and other techniques can be used to gather this intel. Unlike wearable health trackers, people don't need to remember to charge batteries or "put on" a smart toilet. A person's consistent use of a smart toilet will allow for consistent data creation without them needing to remember or do anything outside of their routine toilets are the same as any consumer product—the more interest and demand for smart toilets that can track health status the more companies will jump in to create the supply (Marr, 2020). Now that consumers are using health and fitness devices. Now google intent to getting patents for a blood pressure- monitoring toilet is any indication, we believe intelligent toilets will begin to proliferate assuming manufacturers make them easy to use and reliable as well as overcome the privacy and security concerns people will have about collecting this very personal data.
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The capacity of the smart toilet to perform faecal and urine analysis is really to be expected from artificial intelligence is now as of now fit for recognizing diabetes or Alzheimer's disease from scans. Stool and urine samples are the most regularly utilized test to decide patient’s wellbeing. The faecal examination analyses conditions influencing the stomach related symptoms while the urine analysis can discover certain sicknesses. These examples can uncover various conditions, for example, stomach contaminations, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, Kidney illness, Liver sickness, diabetes, and sexually transmitted diseases.
6.3. TOILETS AS A HEALTH TOOL
We accept that smart toilets can enhance the health sector since we as a whole think about this pandemic circumstance and eventual outcomes of entire emergencies. Smart toilet can play imperative job in increasing with the health area by various way. All over world simply lives in a dread from the corona virus, so every individual is anxious to know whether they had influenced from corona, so basic need to settle this issue is to conduct the corona infection test. As answer for that we recommend smart toilets which are equipped for investigating or identifying the infection. Generally, all solid and liquid bodily waste is just made up of by products from bodily processes including digestion and detoxification. It’s the concentration of these chemical compounds that can show if there are any issues with your body
Moreover, when the AI toilets analyse the urine and faeces, the reports could then be uploaded to the internet to be sent directly to a doctor. This might spare you and your primary care physician's an ideal opportunity to accomplish more tests. The scientists accept that by investigating human waste through progressively could be the most ideal approach to recognize any difficulty signs in prior. As smartphone devices continue to be developed, it’s only a matter of time before revolutionary healthcare improvements are introduced to all kinds of different appliances that we regularly use every day. As smartphone device keep on being created, it won't be long until progressive medicinal services enhancements are acquainted with a wide range of various applications that we consistently utilize each day. Smart toilets could even yield insights into public health, says Michael Lindenmayer, the smart sanitation technology and digital health co-lead at the Toilet Board Coalition. Nowadays the European Space Agency to collect data from smart toilets in public bathrooms, as well as landscape and weather information from satellites. The goal is to give health officials evidence of a disease before it becomes a full-blown disaster, such as the west Africa Ebola epidemic in 2014.
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According to recent studies smart toilet may provide a series of challenges for those who trying to develop technology and market the technology by making them reliable and easy to use and in finding a way to connect with consumers in the business landscapes. AI application made a necessary change in medicine and health care sectors, technology that uses human-inspired technology called neural networks to spot various types of patterns. Thus, AI systems, once trained on large quantities of carefully labelled real-world data, can do things like spot evidence of diabetes in retina imagery and process X-ray scans (Shankland, 2020). These are the some really life examples that AI can be influenced.
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7. CONCLUSION
The purpose of the study is to analyse the current status of the waterless toilet technology in the international outlook and the market analysis of the current waterless toilet products. Furthermore, the aim was to identify the scope of the toilet products in the smart era and to have a view in the health care sector where it can have high level of influence. The pandemic situation created because of the Corona virus have motivated us to look forward with the technology where these toilet products can have an influence in the health care sector. The modern world is in search for an answer for sustainability and we have the answer to sustainability and to maintain the ecology system with waterless toilet systems. With the proper implementation of waterless toilets in the world market especially in the African and Asian continents which could create a pathway for saving the water resources for more generations and by having a healthy life with proper sanitation using the waterless toilet systems which is really essential for the present scenario. Waterless toilet systems will be useful for the society as it would become the part of the Ecosan cycle where wastes will be considered as the resources. Adding to the opportunities for the waterless toilet technology with the world of viruses and diseases which the modern world is facing, these toilet technologies can be resourceful.
Based on the research conducted, industry experts are concluding that the incinerating toilets will not be the future of the waterless technology as it serves the most advanced toilet technology in the market. Many firms are not moving forward with incinerating technology because of the non-ecological issues, high energy consumption, losing of valuable nutrients and the maintenance problems. Firms are not getting proper revenue from this technology these could be main reasons for not conquering the market environment as customers are more interested in urine diversion toilet and vacuum toilets. All the manufacturers are facing the common problem of waste management which is the ultimate problem faced by the customer who is in use of the waterless toilets. Majority of the people are not interested in having a waterless toilet because of the waste management issues and they are not aware of the system and biproducts which can be attained through the composting technology. Government bodies have to take keen interests in creating standards for waterless toilet sanitations by providing more information to the open world through advertisements and community classes.
We believe that smart toilets are capable of changing the whole perspective of the society due to the influence of smart innovation we have in our hands. Smart toilet will open different
71 | Page platforms for health care department thus it can lead in adding some value to healthcare sector in other way, we can call toilet has a health tool. Smart toilets can be useful for identifying the health conditions of an individual by analysing the urine or faeces samples with the help of sensors. This will make the individual to identify his/her health condition even without going to hospitals. For the future study and researches we would like to open a new way of approach where waste management system and smart toilet applications should go through same direction with two branches or gates as the society is in search for solutions for both concerns.
Finally, we have conducted a market study of waterless toilet in an international outlook by means of collecting various data that can actually influence the entrepreneurs and to analyse the product features of their competitors with help of relevant data, TRL and technology- market portfolio. We do consider our findings as trustworthy even though we had faced constraints including the face to face interviews with different actors as part of data collection because of the global pandemic situation.
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