This post is from Fionn, who works on a betterplace incubator project:
As Joana has already mentioned in ealier posts, Noa Lerner, Holger Schmitz and I are working on a sanitation project for the bottom of the pyramid market segment.It started as part of this WTO-Project on betterplace. We decided to design a squat toilet which requires no H2O and for which, therefore a drainage system is not required.
Our first prototype/ concept enables the residents of slums, who live in cramped conditions, often in one room, to own their own toilet. A mechanical syphon will permit the odourless enclosing of faeces and urine in a tank. The tank, when full, can be transported to a public bio digester. Here the contents will be turned into methane gas.
A nanotechnological finishing surface will facilitate the complete emptying of the tank. The biodigester can be connected, according to need, to an energy kiosk in which the methane gas can be transformed into electricity. In turn, slum residents will be able to charge batteries. Small businesses, such as goldsmiths where well-lit work places are needed, could operate using the methane gas.
Maybe you remember Joana talking about a little stop and motion film we made from cut out fotos, finaly here it is :
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ruyJBGc70g]
To prove our concept, we recently went to India for two weeks. Here we had the honuer to work together with Dr. Pathak, the founder of Sulab international. His organisation is successfully trying to improve sanitation in India: up to this day, they already installed 1,2 million privat and 7000 public toilets. Together with his engineers , biologists and mathematicians we work on all the issues which were still open regarding biogas and electricity.
Another part of our field study in India was to talk to the future owners of the toilets. We wanted to find out if they actually would be open for our sanitation concept and how they would like there toilets to be designed.
Prepared with specialy designed interview tools we went into the living areas, were we not only talked to the inhabitants, but also tried out our first prototype, which we had brought along from Germany.
At the moment we are evaluating the results from our trip to India and prepare our business plan. This we will be presenting at the University of Arts in Berlin in April.
Fionn Dobbin