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Sensor-based evaluation of a Urine Trap toilet in a shared bathroom

Urine diversion in a No-Mix Toilet is a promising approach for sustainable fertilizers and reduction of the nutrient load for wastewater treatment; however, user adoption remains a challenge. This study evaluates the Urine Trap, a passive No-Mix toilet design based on the teapot effect, wherein the...

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Autores principales: Kachoria, Prateek, Sasidaran, Sarani, Welling, Claire M., Rosario, Praveen, Zhou, Jin, Chakrabarty, Krishnendu, Gründl, Harald, Kristoferitsch, Lotte, Grego, Sonia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9742848/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36202366
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159178
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author Kachoria, Prateek
Sasidaran, Sarani
Welling, Claire M.
Rosario, Praveen
Zhou, Jin
Chakrabarty, Krishnendu
Gründl, Harald
Kristoferitsch, Lotte
Grego, Sonia
author_facet Kachoria, Prateek
Sasidaran, Sarani
Welling, Claire M.
Rosario, Praveen
Zhou, Jin
Chakrabarty, Krishnendu
Gründl, Harald
Kristoferitsch, Lotte
Grego, Sonia
author_sort Kachoria, Prateek
collection PubMed
description Urine diversion in a No-Mix Toilet is a promising approach for sustainable fertilizers and reduction of the nutrient load for wastewater treatment; however, user adoption remains a challenge. This study evaluates the Urine Trap, a passive No-Mix toilet design based on the teapot effect, wherein the urine stream inlet is invisible to the user and therefore it does not impact the user experience for increased adoption. This study evaluated the nutrient separation performance of a Urine Trap flush toilet in a bathroom shared by women in two sites in India. Over three different testing periods, 841 uses of this squat plate were recorded in 50 days. Analytical measurements found 36 % separation efficiency for total nitrogen (TN). While effective, the Urine Trap under test by users did not yield a 70–80 % TN separation efficiency observed under engineering characterization. High temporal resolution data from sensors on waste collection tanks, the opening of the bathroom door, and cleansing water flow were used to gain insights into hygiene practices. The data showed a frequent habit of wetting the squat plate during physiological excretion, a hygienic practice that eases cleaning but degrades the teapot separation effect of the Urine Trap design. By using sensors, we demonstrate a method to non-invasively gain quantitative insights into hygiene practices to inform sanitation technologies deployment strategies for improved outcomes.
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spelling pubmed-97428482023-01-20 Sensor-based evaluation of a Urine Trap toilet in a shared bathroom Kachoria, Prateek Sasidaran, Sarani Welling, Claire M. Rosario, Praveen Zhou, Jin Chakrabarty, Krishnendu Gründl, Harald Kristoferitsch, Lotte Grego, Sonia Sci Total Environ Article Urine diversion in a No-Mix Toilet is a promising approach for sustainable fertilizers and reduction of the nutrient load for wastewater treatment; however, user adoption remains a challenge. This study evaluates the Urine Trap, a passive No-Mix toilet design based on the teapot effect, wherein the urine stream inlet is invisible to the user and therefore it does not impact the user experience for increased adoption. This study evaluated the nutrient separation performance of a Urine Trap flush toilet in a bathroom shared by women in two sites in India. Over three different testing periods, 841 uses of this squat plate were recorded in 50 days. Analytical measurements found 36 % separation efficiency for total nitrogen (TN). While effective, the Urine Trap under test by users did not yield a 70–80 % TN separation efficiency observed under engineering characterization. High temporal resolution data from sensors on waste collection tanks, the opening of the bathroom door, and cleansing water flow were used to gain insights into hygiene practices. The data showed a frequent habit of wetting the squat plate during physiological excretion, a hygienic practice that eases cleaning but degrades the teapot separation effect of the Urine Trap design. By using sensors, we demonstrate a method to non-invasively gain quantitative insights into hygiene practices to inform sanitation technologies deployment strategies for improved outcomes. Elsevier 2023-01-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9742848/ /pubmed/36202366 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159178 Text en © 2022 The Authors https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kachoria, Prateek
Sasidaran, Sarani
Welling, Claire M.
Rosario, Praveen
Zhou, Jin
Chakrabarty, Krishnendu
Gründl, Harald
Kristoferitsch, Lotte
Grego, Sonia
Sensor-based evaluation of a Urine Trap toilet in a shared bathroom
title Sensor-based evaluation of a Urine Trap toilet in a shared bathroom
title_full Sensor-based evaluation of a Urine Trap toilet in a shared bathroom
title_fullStr Sensor-based evaluation of a Urine Trap toilet in a shared bathroom
title_full_unstemmed Sensor-based evaluation of a Urine Trap toilet in a shared bathroom
title_short Sensor-based evaluation of a Urine Trap toilet in a shared bathroom
title_sort sensor-based evaluation of a urine trap toilet in a shared bathroom
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9742848/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36202366
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159178
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