Vermiculture and sewage composting

Discussion in 'Designing, building, making and powering your life' started by jivah, Feb 4, 2009.

  1. jivah

    jivah Junior Member

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    Hi,

    Wondering if I can get some input, I have been looking into treating sewage using vermiculture and I was looking around for any plans for a diy system. I have seem the biolytix system which looks like it is doing what I am after but I am in a remote location and am looking for something I can build and look after myself and that I can adjust to my local conditions. Does anyone know of any diy plans for such a system?

    Cheers
     
  2. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    Re: Vermiculture and sewage composting

    have you considered a composting toilet, the simplest design is nature-loo from our experience uses no water and no need for power if you have some wind about to vent it using a wind turbine ventilator. we opted to use composting worms in the toilet bins all worked very well, poo was ready for use at about 6 to 7 months, that is the determining factor in deciding how many bins are needed.

    https://www.nature-loo.com.au/

    all used water could go directly to gardens and fruit trees, no need to complicate a simple process. and for us blokes it is easy but if you collect all urine seperate it can be mixed in with some of the used water and used in the gardens, for the ladies you would need to set up a commode, that way you run your n/l as a dry system.

    len
     
  3. Hamishmac

    Hamishmac Junior Member

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  4. raincrow

    raincrow Junior Member

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    Re: Vermiculture and sewage composting

    Greetings everyone,
    Check out https://www.solartoilet.com Larry's design works great, and he's in Nahcotta Washington---temperate rainforest with 90 to 100 inches of rain per year. It should work even better in a sunnier clime. I live in southern ecotopia, sometimes referred to as northern california. I have the plans from Larry and permission from our local health dept to build it, just need to get off my lazy :!: and do it. I have seen and used Larry's and it is perfect. The only thing about a solar toilet is that the door has to face away from the sun, so placement is critical, especially if you want a view. rc
     
  5. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    Re: Vermiculture and sewage composting

    g'day raincrow,

    does he actually show you what the unit looks like in its complete state?? like nature-loo do?

    len
     
  6. raincrow

    raincrow Junior Member

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    Re: Vermiculture and sewage composting

    Just a few thumbnails. One could probably e-mail him through his website and get better photos . rc
     
  7. jivah

    jivah Junior Member

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    Re: Vermiculture and sewage composting

    Hi Everbody,

    Thanks for all your replies but maybe I should have made myself a bit clearer. My house is just how I like it, simple and maybe a little crude and my familly are very good about it but they are all insistent on one thing. They will not put up with a "yuky" composting toilet, they want something that flushes. They can put up with everything else, but this they want, so I have to find a solution. We have no water problem, we have plenty of space and we are on a slope so I was thinking about a low flush toilet emptying into a tank with some sort of filter, this would stop the solids from going through and hten useing worms as a digester. I would then treat the water through a reed bed and use the output for irrigation. The problem is the filter, I can either use an Aquatron Seperator from Sweden, or I could go for something like the Biolytix system. The only thing is I am very remote and need to do my own maintenance so I was wondering if I could build something. What do you think?

    Cheers
     
  8. openeyes

    openeyes Junior Member

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  9. raincrow

    raincrow Junior Member

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    Re: Vermiculture and sewage composting

    I have heard of someone who uses crushed lava rock as a filter. The idea is that lava rock has many more pockets or 'edges' than smoother rock, and these extra pockets allow more places for bacteria to go to work. This type of system needs oxygen to work, so must be close to the surface, which is a problem for some health departments. rc
     
  10. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    Re: Vermiculture and sewage composting

    g'day jivah,

    you don't indicate where you are from?

    but treatment of human waste in most developed countries is heavily regulated.

    you would at least need to install a septic system.

    you need to consider that human waste needs carefull management and there is nothing YUK about a composting toilet, you sit on a pedistal that looks exactly like a normal toilet suite, the only diffrence is no button to push to flush it. you don't see what is down at the bottom of the shute unless you shine a torch in there, and there is no smell.

    after about 6 to 7 months of composting after the full drum is removed from service you have this humus material that bears no resemblance to what it once was, and again no imposing odour. for me i don't know of any safe way to deal with human waste other tna the myriod of composting type toilets, septic or sewerage. you could very easily contaminate local water ways. the simplest methods are found on the humanure site.

    len
     
  11. jivah

    jivah Junior Member

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    Re: Vermiculture and sewage composting

    Perfect, just what I was looking for. Thanks everyone. Cheers
     
  12. Ice Czar

    Ice Czar Junior Member

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    Re: Vermiculture and sewage composting

    Anaerobic Biogas Digester
    Design
    Construction
    Operation

    the effluent after methane production would be the composting and vermiculture stage


    Dr. Ruihong Zhang research scientist UC Davis Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. Has developed substantial improvements to two phase anaerobic digestion.

    patent application 20070158264 Anaerobic phased solids digester for biogas production from organic solid wastes pdf

    patent 7015028 Process for treatment of organic waste materials pdf 2006

    patent 7316921 Organic waste material treatment system pdf 2008

    patent 6342378 Biogasification of solid waste with an anaerobic-phased solids-digester system pdf 2002


    my personal goal is to combine a dual stage anerobic digestor's effluent (nitrogen source) with biochar from a wood gasifier (carbon source) into a thermophilic compost pile (like the humanure handbook) with mycellium and vermiculture stages. Hopefully a sustainable carbon negative forge \ smithy with my waste stream being near to a terra preta soil.

    human and dog waste > methane + nitrogen
    ligin rich biomass > syngas + carbon
    add mineral dirt + mycelium + microbial life and nematodes
     
  13. Paddy82

    Paddy82 Junior Member

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