Eshan Maitra
This started as a competition when the Gates Foundation first announced a big prize money for designing the most sustainable and cheap toilet. Cranfield University’s Nano Membrane Toilet won Bill and Melinda Gates’s favor with their design in September 2012. The winning team received US $710,000 to make that into reality.
The Nano Membrane Toilet mainly aims to help the people in poor urban areas where both water supply and good sanitary system is scarce. The toilet give service up to 10 people only for $0.05 per day. (That’s even cheaper than public toilets in Dhaka!)
The design of this toilet is brilliant. After each service, the bowl turn 270 degrees to scrap off residual waste with its tools. Later, the delicate design of the very thin nanofibres can sort vapor out from the waste. That is condensed into water with a condenser and stored in a different tank. The waste sits there for further drying process.
When the tanks are full, just a technician can collect the waste, change tanks and batteries. The stored wastes is can be easily transformed into bio-fuel. While the clean water can be used for any purpose, even for cooking.
The goal of the Gates Foundation’s project is to create an environment friendly disposal method.