Waste processing apparatus
AssigneeCranfield University
InventorLeon Matthew Williams
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A human waste processing system adapted to process both human solid and liquid waste deposited into a toilet or similar vessel and to process the waste for further use and/or convenient disposal. The present system is specifically configured for use with low-water-volume flush toilets and dry toilets. In particular, the present system is configured to separate solid waste and liquid waste with liquid waste being processed via a plurality of sequential filtration stages and with the solid waste being processed by thermal decomposition such as pyrolysis/torrefaction processing.
Claims28
Waste processing apparatus comprising:
- a) a liquid waste processing assembly comprising:
- at least one pre-filter treatment unit having a liquid flow inlet and outlet and a particulate filter to separate particulate suspended within waste liquid;
- a membrane distillation unit having a membrane distillation vessel with an internal filter membrane, a primary flow liquid inlet and outlet and a permeate flow outlet, the primary flow liquid inlet connected in fluid communication to the liquid flow outlet of the pre-filter treatment unit;
- and
- b) a solid waste processing assembly comprising:
- a pyrolysis unit having at least one heater and a pyrolysis chamber provided with a solid waste inlet, a solid waste outlet, a gas/moisture vapour outlet;
- and
- a scrubber unit having a scrubber tank to contain a scrubber liquid and provided with a liquid outlet, a gas outlet and a gas/moisture vapour inlet coupled to the gas/moisture vapour outlet of the pyrolysis chamber.
A method of processing human waste comprising:
- a) processing liquid waste via a liquid waste processing assembly including:
- receiving liquid waste from a toilet at a pre-filter treatment unit;
- filtering the waste liquid at the pre-filter treatment unit using a particulate filter;
- transferring filtered waste liquid from the pre-filter treatment unit to a membrane distillation unit;
- filtering the waste liquid through a filter membrane within a membrane distillation vessel of the membrane distillation unit;
- and
- outputting liquid permeate from the membrane distillation unit;
- and
- b) processing solid waste via a solid waste processing assembly including:
- thermally decomposing solid waste within a chamber using pyrolysis;
- exhausting a flow of a gas from said chamber generated by the pyrolysis into a body of a scrubber liquid contained within a scrubber tank, the scrubber tank positioned in internal fluid communication with the chamber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.