The NEWgenerator non-sewered sanitation system: Long-term field testing at an informal settlement community in eThekwini municipality, South Africa

Shyu, Hsiang-Yang; Bair, Robert; Castro, Cynthia J.; Xaba, L.; Delgado-Navarro, Manuel; Sindall, Rebecca; Cottingham, Ruth; Uman, Ahmet E.; Buckley, Chris; Yeh, Daniel H.

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112921

Cited by 11 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…which can be easily regenerated and reused, so space availability and media replacement frequency should also be taken into consideration. Recently, clinoptilolite was evaluated in a 1.5-year field testing study as a N-removal process subsequent to an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) [80,81]. The results of this work are similar to what we observed; namely, that clinoptilolite can achieve high ammonium removal with real OWTS wastewater without compromising other treatment performance metrics.…”

Section: Plos Watersupporting

confidence: 80%

Integration of silicate minerals for ammonium and phosphate removal with an on-site wastewater treatment prototype

Vasquez

Tyson²,

Hawkins³

et al. 2022

PLOS Water

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Inadequately treated wastewater exiting from on-site water treatment systems (OWTS) contains high levels of ammonium and phosphate, which contribute to environmental nutrient pollution. Nutrient removal in small-scale OWTS can be challenging because the most effective known methods are designed for large-scale systems and rely on biological processes. This work focuses on the implementation of two natural silicate-based minerals, clinoptilolite and Polonite, as non-biological sorptive media for nutrient removal in an OWTS. Lab-scale batch sorption experiments showed that Polonite performance is maximized after suspended solids have been removed from blackwater via ultrafiltration. In contrast, clinoptilolite shows robust performance even with untreated blackwater. With both minerals installed in our full-scale OWTS prototype, nutrient removal performance increased from 47.5 ± 15.0% to 84.1 ± 6.3% removal for total N and from 32.3 ± 2.3% to 78.9 ± 5.9% removal for total P. Nevertheless, the target removal performance (>80%) for total P was only achieved with high Polonite loading, which increased effluent pH outside the target range of 6 < pH < 9. Additionally, no loss in nutrient removal performance was observed when the OWTS was restarted after a 150-day idle period. To investigate the potential for media reuse and nutrient recovery, various media regeneration solutions were evaluated. For clinoptilolite, 1 M HCl, NaCl, and KCl all showed good regeneration ability at 2 h contact time, with KCl showing the highest (>86%) ammonium recovery. For the first time, we demonstrated that a minor fraction (30–40%) of binding sites in Polonite can be regenerated using 1 M NaOH or KOH. We also found that the same 1 M HCl regeneration solution could be reused for four clinoptilolite regeneration cycles with no loss in performance. From these results, we discuss opportunities and limitations for implementing these materials in small-scale OWTS.

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Section: Plos Watersupporting

confidence: 80%

Integration of silicate minerals for ammonium and phosphate removal with an on-site wastewater treatment prototype

Vasquez

Tyson²,

Hawkins³

et al. 2022

PLOS Water

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“…7 A range of technologies -serving individual households (single-unit reinvented toilets), clusters of households (multi-unit reinvented toilets), and even communities of tens of thousands of people (Omni Processors) -have emerged to tackle the sanitation challenge. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] In recognition of the potential of NSS to contribute to safe sanitation coverage, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) established testing and performance requirements (ISO 30500) for NSS systems. The stringent testing and performance requirements ensure human health protection in solids output and liquid effluent via log reduction values (LRV) of human enteric bacterial pathogens, thresholds for effluent chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), and pH, as well as nutrient removal requirements for total nitrogen and total phosphorus.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The stringent testing and performance requirements ensure human health protection in solids output and liquid effluent via log reduction values (LRV) of human enteric bacterial pathogens, thresholds for effluent chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), and pH, as well as nutrient removal requirements for total nitrogen and total phosphorus. 19 One such NSS technology that has achieved robust treatment of real human waste streams (97.6 ± 3.1% TSS removal, 94.5 ± 5.0% COD removal, 7.4 ± 1.5% LRV, 82.1 ± 24.0% total nitrogen removal) 8 is the NEWgenerator. The NEWgenerator is a NSS backend technology that can be integrated with various frontends (i.e., user interfaces such as urinal, squatting or seating pan, and associated plumbing) to serve 100+ users.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The technology consists of an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR), a nutrient capture system (NCS) with ion exchange and carbon sorption, and an electrochlorination (EC) unit. 8 All NEWgenerator units are fully-integrated and housed in a mini-shipping container (4.56 m 2 footprint) for a compact, portable design. To date, the financial viability and GHG implications of this technology, as well as its sensitivities to sitespecific considerations (i.e., contextual parameters such as the electricity mix), 20 are yet to be quantified.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our analysis leveraged detailed design and published performance data from a field trial in an informal settlement in South Africa over a 534 day period (October 2018 to March 2020), treating highstrength blackwater and yellow water from a community toilet facility. 8 In addition to the NEWgenerator, the analysis included a frontend (user interface such as a urinal and squatting/seat pan and associated plumbing), pretreatment, a foundation, and onsite sludge treatment to simulate fully operational NSS system. We evaluated the system using QSDsan, 20 an open-source, community-led platform for the QSD of sanitation and resource recovery systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Advancing the economic and environmental sustainability of the NEWgeneratorTM non-sewered sanitation system

Guest

Watabe

Lohman

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Achieving safely managed sanitation and resource recovery in areas that are rural, geographically challenged, or experiencing rapidly increasing population density may not be feasible with centralized facilities due to space requirements, site-specific concerns, and high costs of sewer installation. Non-sewered sanitation (NSS) systems have the potential to provide safely managed sanitation and achieve strict wastewater treatment standards. One such NSS treatment (backend) technology is the NEWgeneratorTM, which includes an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR), nutrient recovery via ion exchange, and electrochlorination. Although the system has been shown to achieve robust treatment of real waste streams for over 100 users, the technology’s relative life cycle sustainability across deployment locations remains unclear. This study characterizes the financial viability and life cycle environmental impacts of the NEWgeneratorTM and prioritizes opportunities to advance system sustainability through targeted improvements and deployment. The costs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the NEWgeneratorTM (general case) leveraging grid electricity were 0.139 [0.113 – 0.168] USD·cap-1·d-1 and 79.7 [55.0 – 112.3] kg CO2-eq·cap-1·yr-1, respectively. A transition to photovoltaic-generated electricity would increase costs to 0.145 [0.118 – 0.181] USD·cap-1·d-1 but decrease GHG emissions to 56.1 [33.8 – 86.2] kg CO2eq·cap-1·yr-1. The deployment location analysis demonstrated reduced median costs (relative to the general case) for deployment in China (-38%), India (-53%), Senegal (-31%), South Africa (-31%), and Uganda (-35%), but at comparable or increased GHG emissions (-2% to +16%). Examining targeted improvements revealed the relative change in median cost and GHG emissions to be -21% and -3% if loading is doubled (i.e., doubled users per unit), -30% and -12% with additional sludge drying, and +9% and -25% with the addition of a membrane contactor, respectively, with limited benefits (0-5% reductions) from an alternative photovoltaic battery, low-cost housing, or improved frontend operation. This research demonstrates the NEWgeneratorTM is a low-cost, low-emission NSS backend technology with the potential for resource recovery to increase access to safe sanitation.

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Designing for climate change: twenty-five design features to improve sanitation technology resilience in low- and middle- income countries

Cunningham,

Kohlitz,

Willetts

2024

Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change

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Climate change is exacerbating events such as floods and droughts, and trends including sea-level rise, leading to failures in sanitation technologies, increased public health risks and environmental pollution. To reduce these risks, it is crucial to incorporate climate resilience into sanitation technology designs. In this study, we reviewed academic and selected grey literature and identified 25 design features that can contribute to the technology’s resilience to an increasingly volatile and extreme climate. Design features that were conceptually similar were collated into seven categories. These categories included: (i) avoid exposure to hazards, (ii) withstand exposure to hazards, (iii) enable flexibility, (iv) contain failures, (v) limit consequences of complete failure, (vi) facilitate fast recovery and (vii) features that provide resilience benefits beyond technological resilience. In this paper we define the categories and design features, and provide examples of each feature in practice. We also outline how the resilience design features can support sanitation designers and implementers to critique the climate resilience of sanitation technology, and prompt more resilient designs of sanitation technology.

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The NEWgenerator non-sewered sanitation system: Long-term field testing at an informal settlement community in eThekwini municipality, South Africa

Cited by 11 publications

References 17 publications

Integration of silicate minerals for ammonium and phosphate removal with an on-site wastewater treatment prototype

Integration of silicate minerals for ammonium and phosphate removal with an on-site wastewater treatment prototype

Advancing the economic and environmental sustainability of the NEWgeneratorTM non-sewered sanitation system

Designing for climate change: twenty-five design features to improve sanitation technology resilience in low- and middle- income countries

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