Open access
Author
Date
2023-11-27Type
- Bachelor Thesis
ETH Bibliography
yes
Altmetrics
Abstract
Most of sub-Saharan Africa relies on non-sewered sanitation. In the treatment of the ac cumulating blackwater dewatering is a crucial step. Established technologies for dewatering are drying beds or settling tanks. These methods are often land- and time-intensive. Mechani cal dewatering offers a solution to this problem. However commercially available mechanical dewatering presses are often too big in scale, require electricity for operation, and rely on the global supply chain. Therefore two designs of a manual mechanical dewatering press that serves a small-scale, urban community of 5000 people were conceived. These presses are con structed with widely available construction steel, which allows for their construction in local workshops. The pressure mechanism in both designs is powered by a widely available 12 t hydraulic car jack. The major difference between the two designs is the orientation, one is vertical the other horizontal. In a comparison between the vertical and horizontal design, the vertical design emerged with more advantages. These advantages were mainly from cheaper manufacturing, easier assembly, and knowledge of the workings of the system due to tests with smaller-scale fruit presses that employ a very similar concept. Because of the aforementioned reasons, the vertical system is recommended for construction. If a horizontal system is desired a change of concept to a filter press is suggested. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000653369Publication status
publishedContributors
Examiner: Tilley, Elizabeth
Examiner: Strande, Linda
Examiner: Tkaczuk, Jakub
Examiner: Vogel, Michael
Publisher
ETH ZurichSubject
Blackwater; Dewatering; sanitationOrganisational unit
09746 - Tilley, Elizabeth / Tilley, Elizabeth
More
Show all metadata
ETH Bibliography
yes
Altmetrics