From human waste to water

Daniel Yeh in front of the NEWgenerator

The NEWgenerator is an off-grid sanitation system that will be rolled out to rural and informal communities in South Africa. Developed by the University of South Florida, the NEWgenerator is designed to turn sewage wastewater into (non-potable) water, energy and nutrients.

From human waste

to water

Engineering, procurement and construction contractor WEC Projects has been chosen by the Water Research Commission (WRC) under its South African Sanitation Technology Enterprise Programme as an industrial manufacturing partner to test a sanitation system called the NEWgenerator.

“This is a particularly exciting system that we predict will help address a number of critical social challenges facing the country, including sanitation, access to water, energy independence and improved food production,” says Dr Gunter Rencken, technical director at WEC Projects.

WEC Projects specialises in the design and provision of custom- or pre-engineered modular, packaged water and wastewater treatment plants and equipment across the continent. “Our manufacturing capability in Johannesburg, understanding of the conditions and market in Africa, as well as the technical skill set of our engineering and design team make WEC Projects the perfect fit for commercialising the NEWgenerator,” adds Wayne Taljaard, managing director of WEC Projects.

NEWgenerator A compact, portable and modular sanitation system, the NEWgenerator can be installed in a standard shipping container, moved to site and brought online with minimal effort, easing logistical problems and ensuring a quick setup. It can be installed in areas without the infrastructure needed to support conventional wastewater treatment systems. The NEWgenerator does not require a full sewer network or power supply. The sanitation system has an anaerobic digester that uses microbes to break down human waste while producing biogas. Clean water is filtered out – with bacteria, viruses and any remaining solid particles removed – and then disinfected through a chlorination system. Most (99%) of the water can be recycled for reuse in the sanitation platform, reducing its reliance on the local water supply. The

Wayne Taljaard, managing director, WEC Projects

Dr Gunter Rencken, technical director, WEC Projects

A vertical hydroponic green wall attached to the NEWgenerator uses the nutrients and water recovered from the NEWgenerator’s waste The NEWgenerator demonstration plant has been designed to cope with up to 100 users per day and can power itself with solar-charged batteries

nutrient-rich treated water is an ideal crop fertiliser for use by local small-scale and informal farmers, and the biogas produced can be utilised for domestic purposes such as cooking and heating.

“A unique feature of the NEWgenerator is that it can run independently of the power grid, using solar power to operate or it can be hooked up to a generator. This makes it particularly suitable for use in South Africa where the country’s unreliable power grid, prone to loadshedding and unscheduled outages, has had an adverse impact on existing infrastructure and equipment, often leaving even developed urban areas without power or access to water for prolonged periods,” says Rencken.

The NEWgenerator is designed with a separate back- and front-end system, and it can be added to existing toilet infrastructure. WEC Projects can also provide a containerised toilet block that is quick to install.

Research, development and trials Daniel Yeh, professor: Civil and Environmental Engineering, and his research team at the University of South Florida (USF) designed the NEWgenerator. A total of US$2 million (R30 million) in grant money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation from its ‘Reinvent the Toilet’ challenge was donated to USF. The team initiated development and testing in India before setting its sights on South Africa, working with the University of KwaZulu-Natal to test its effectiveness on a pilot scale in the eThekwini area (where it has been tested for three years). The pilot evaluated both technical and social aspects of the technology.

Rencken states that social acceptance of the NEWgenerator by the community is an important aspect of the studies and trials. “We have partnered with Joburg Water and are trialling the NEWgenerator at a site in Soweto. A community liaison officer is appointed, acting as a day-to-day manager of the facility and interacting with the community. There will also be a questionnaire directed to the community members to ascertain their feelings towards the NEWgenerator, which is basically a flushing toilet system and gives the normal toilet experience – aiding in gaining community acceptance.”

From a technical side, the NEWgenerator demonstration plant in Soweto has been designed to cope with up to 100 users per day, with the potential for expansion of its capacity to meet local requirements. WEC Projects will continuously monitor and test the system during its use, sampling output and reporting regularly to the WRC and USF teams. There will be a further study in a rural area in the Eastern Cape. As a result of the trials, WEC Projects has added its own design inputs. “We have simplified the design and have made the NEWgenerator more robust, theft-proof, as well as easy to maintain and operate. It has been important to ensure that the entire NEWgenerator unit is manufactured using local content, improving support and backup capabilities,” explains Taljaard.

A licensing agreement with USF for the NEWgenerator is now in place with WEC Projects. “The ability to scale up the manufacture and roll-out of the NEWgenerator locally will not only ensure the country’s ability to deploy it rapidly to where it is most needed but also grow an export market into the SADC region,” adds Rencken.

New technology for the future “While the NEWgenerator addresses a number of urgent social needs, particularly in rural and informal settlements, it can also be used in other areas,” adds Rencken. “These can include eco-tourism, for schools, housing projects, underground mines and in emergency situations. We are proud to be associated with a project such as the NEWgenerator and look forward to its future development and deployment in Africa.”

“Large parts of the South African population have inadequate access to sanitation facilities and services. In order to address this, the current sanitation environment must be transformed towards a smart sanitation technology solutions environment that will see sanitation going off the grid and adopting a circular economy approach. The NEWgenerator is an example of this type of technology,” concludes Taljaard.

Ladies doing their washing at the communal ablution blocks in the Thandanani-Greenwood Park informal settlement in Durban