Application of Ultrafiltration and Reverse Osmosis Technology for Mobile Toilets

• Main Author: Austin Sugiarno, Kristoforus
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/41524
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Mobile toilets are box-shaped portable toilet rooms containing a toilet seat and a water tap. They are usually used for various applications such as outdoor festivals, outbound activities, and construction projects. Mobile toilets are also often used to provide toilet infrastructure for refugees during natural disasters. However, lack of clean water supply and excessive wastes are common problems for mobile toilet usage during natural disasters. To reduce the water usage and waste of these mobile toilets, this study aims to design a water recycling system that uses ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis technology to clean toilet wastewater and recycle them back to supply clean water for toilet use. This study would analyze and evaluate 3 possible design alternatives for the recycling system based on their water saving abilities and costs required. The scope of the analysis and design of these 3 alternatives would include the pump head/pressure, size of the pipes used, area of membrane used, net water usage, and costs required Based on the evaluation of these three alternatives, two alternatives were chosen where each of these selected alternatives has their own advantages for different conditions. One of these alternative would only use the ultrafiltration membrane to filter the wastewater, while having two separate tanks for flushing purposes and tap water usage. This recycled water would not be used to feed the tap water tank since it does not meet the water quality requirement to be re-used as tap water while it has sufficient quality to be used as flushing water. This design alternative would only need 0.3 liters of clean water per flush and would need an estimated investment cost of 20 million rupiah to install. The other alternative would use both the ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis filter, and also have 2 separate tanks. The flow stream that passes through the RO membrane would be used for tap water usage, while the rest would be used for flushing purposes. This alternative would have the water running in a perferct loop allowing the system to save 100% of the water and woud need an estimated investment cost of around 26 million Rupiah.