New Nano membrane toilet ...

The friendliest place on the web for anyone who enjoys boating.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
Man I hate to say it but I would imagine the geographic area these are intended for would most likely bust them up and try to sell the parts to buy food......
 
swampu said:
Man I hate to say it but I would imagine the geographic area these are intended for would most likely bust them up and try to sell the parts to buy food......
Click to expand...

I think you're right; I remember a few years ago NGO 's started supplying western hand operated water pumps to local African villages only to find that they did not understand basic mechanical devices and how to maintain them: after 6 months all the pumps had failed and been smashed up.

To counter this techonogly problem someone designed a pump that consisted of two PVC pipes and a bycicle inner tube....

The good point of the nano toilet is that it does'nt use batteries, but I imagine the rest of the design is very high tech?
 
Last edited:
I was trying to find a link for a company out of Seattle that make urine separating toilets. They installed on at Camp Muir. Very simple mechanical system that would be great for off the grid living on land.

I can't seem to find it butI am a bit handicapped with poor connection and using my phone.
 
dhays said:
I was trying to find a link for a company out of Seattle that make urine separating toilets. They installed on at Camp Muir. Very simple mechanical system that would be great for off the grid living on land. I can't seem to find it butI am a bit handicapped with poor connection and using my phone.
Click to expand...

There are several:

Airhead Toilet
Nature's Head Composting Toilets
C-Head

Most people refer to these as "composting" toilets, but they're all, including Nature's Head, actually desiccators--devices that collect solids and urine separately. The urine is stored in jugs to be disposed of ashore--the only LEGAL way inside the "3 mile limit" although most owners just pour 'em over the side when no one is around to catch 'em doing it. Fans and heaters, along with bacterial "digesters" and organic matter--peat moss is what's recommended-are used to dry out solids and turn them into loam. Someone in another thread referred to them as "litter boxes."

Sun-Mar Composting Toilets are true composters.
 
Last edited:
Rustybarge said:
No flush water needed, and generates electricity ... Hmmm ... :rolleyes:

Waterless toilet turns waste into clean water and power - Jul. 18, 2016
Click to expand...

There are a few issues that make it problematic for use on boats:

1. Water from the waste is drawn through special hollow-fiber membranes as a vapor and is purified. Then, the purified vapor is re-condensed into water and stored in a tank at the front of the toilet for later collection by the user. The water is clean enough for tasks like garden irrigation and laundry.

But not clean enough to be potable, so it can't be used for cooking, bathing (you ingest more water than you think when you wash your face or shower), dishwashing etc. About the only thing left on a boat is laundry and that would require storage and plumbing mods that aren't worth the effort and expense.

the de-watered solid waste at the bottom of the drum is carried up a channel by a screw-shaped pump. The waste is dried out and sent into a gasifier, where it's burned and turned into energy to power the water-treatment system -- with enough left over to charge small devices like mobile phones.

Incinerating marine toilets already exist - I N C I N O L E T - is the most popular, but you'll find a bunch if you google "incinerating toilets." Marine versions are all electric, but only either 220 or 115. so you could only use it if you have a generator. And contrary to popular belief, waste isn't reduced to ash with a brief "whoosh" of heat....the total burn time is about 90 minutes at upwards of 600 degrees--and that's not always long enough to completely reduce solids to ash...They need a 5" vent stack (chimney) and have components including catalytic converters that require frequent cleaning or the smoke STINKS!

Several attempts have been made to dispose of toilet waste through engine exhaust pipes. The earliest attempts were made by the RV industry. It didn't last long for two main reasons: 1. the burned waste was full of animal fats that damaged catalytic converters...and 2. Odor out the tailpipe was horrendous, gassing the occupants of any vehicle following the RV, especially any unlucky enough to be following it up a long steep hill where it was impossible to pass it.

In the mid '90s some Italian geniuses introduced a marine version. That didn't last long either...not only for the same reasons it failed on RVs, but because it could only work on boats with dry exhausts, which are mostly "muscle boats"...wet exhausts don't get hot enough. There have been a few more equally unsuccessful attempts since then.

While there are a number of "alternative" toilet waste treatment solutions, so far no one has come up with a better one than a Type I or II MSD....any of which are vastly superior to holding tanks, but the environmentally lobby refuses to accept that.
 
swampu said:
How about this unit, kinda half dirt toilet and half non dirt toilet. Product details for SANISTAR®
Click to expand...

Not according to their website: "the Sanistar is a combination of a vitreous china toilet bowl and macerator/pump built into one compact unit."

Iow, it's a macerating electric toilet for installation below-grade in a house...a basement bathroom. Not surprising since it's made by the same company that makes the Sanimarin marine toilets--which btw, is the electric toilet that Vetus sells under their brand name.
 
I recall the name of the company, Toilet Tech Solutions. The owner is named Geoff something. I can't find the we sit right now but their applications look very interesting. Again, solely a land based system.
 
psneeld said:
Supposedly about nano filtration that is USCG approved and has been around for awhile.
Click to expand...

You got to be kidding me. A laboratory system that evaporates the water, condenses it for reuse, combusts the waste in a gasifier, turns the heat produced into energy to run the system is now available for real world use and is USCG approved. Yeah, right. And it might fit in my 2 car garage if lucky and require a couple of engineers to keep it running, maybe more to start it up!

David
 
DVZ » Luxury Yacht Products

These guys have the same system as last post, and I'm working with them in Canada with their service people making the cleaner for the membranes and supplying them Noflex Digestor for the sludge .
They all have problems with sludge. Units work; water is clean on discharge. They usually work better with pre-treatment with an aeration system to reduce sludge. They take space and power.
 
djmarchand said:
You got to be kidding me. A laboratory system that evaporates the water, condenses it for reuse, combusts the waste in a gasifier, turns the heat produced into energy to run the system is now available for real world use and is USCG approved. Yeah, right. And it might fit in my 2 car garage if lucky and require a couple of engineers to keep it running, maybe more to start it up!

David
Click to expand...
In the links I provided, I don't recall it saying anything about producing power.

I also didn't say it was available for small vessels.

All I believe I was inferring is that there is new tech out there besides what us little guys are used to.

But some TFers might have vessels large enough when you consider the space holding tanks on a large vessel occupy.
 
Last edited:
psneeld said:
In the links I provided, I don't recall it saying anything about producing power.
Click to expand...

From the referenced CNNMoney article:
"The waste is dried out and sent into a gasifier, where it's burned and turned into energy to power the water-treatment system -- with enough left over to charge small devices like mobile phones."

Do you guys have any idea what a gasifier based power production plant looks like. Even pilot plants take up acres of real estate. There are only a couple of dozen industrial gasifiers in the world that produce power. They are huge, costing billions of dollars.

Here is a discussion of a coal gasifier power plant: How Coal Gasification Power Plants Work | Department of Energy

This isn't something that you scale down and put in the bilge of a 40' boat, or even a 3,000 passenger cruise ship .

And the statement about having enough energy left over to power a mobile phone is totally laughable. A mobile phone can be recharged with a small solar panel that costs less than $10. You don't need a scaled down, billion dollar power plant.

David
 
That's NOT the link I posted...

The links I posted were to a company that already has installed systems on yachts.

Straight from my friends ( yacht engineer and much more) email...

".. it's hardly a "laboratory system" it is real life, it fits on boats and it works. I was on a boat with one several years ago in Tahiti where we fine tuned its operation via the internet from Florida.

The units are getting smaller and work better with each iteration. "

Try these .....like from MY post....

http://www.penumbramarine.com/products/act2tech/

http://www.act2tech.org/
 
Last edited:
Don't worry about it, the link I posted on the home style plumbing showed up on this thread
 
We have a microphor sanitation, which is sort of like a small septic tank. They are mostly on commercial boats. We have a 4 person rated. However we use the tank at dock and get pumped weekly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Owning a 40 foot trawler with no generator?
Replies
25
Views
2K
Cold Duck
Cold Duck
S
Stuck Jabsco Toilet Impeller
Replies
8
Views
870
Squidward
S
D
Dragonfly Update
Replies
1
Views
318
Mako
M
A
FS: 1988 Albin 27 Family Cruiser $30k
Replies
4
Views
1K
AFC27
A
F
To fix or not to fix the engine??
2
Replies
34
Views
3K
SteveK
SteveK

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom