University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Prioritizing opportunities to advance sustainability of non-sewered sanitation systems through financing mechanisms and quantitative sustainable design

Watabe, Shion

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WATABE-THESIS-2022.pdf

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115919

Description

Title
Prioritizing opportunities to advance sustainability of non-sewered sanitation systems through financing mechanisms and quantitative sustainable design
Author(s)
Watabe, Shion
Issue Date
2022-07-18
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Guest, Jeremy S
Department of Study
Civil & Environmental Eng
Discipline
Environ Engr in Civil Engr
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.S.
Degree Level
Thesis
Keyword(s)
  • Non-sewered sanitation system (NSSS)
  • multi-unit reinvented toilet (MURT)
  • techno-economic analysis (TEA)
  • life cycle assessment (LCA)
  • decentralized sanitation
  • on-site sanitation
Abstract
Safe sanitation is crucial to prevent the spread of diarrheal diseases and to reduce gender-related health disparities. Although it has been recognized as a universal right, the world is not on track to achieve universal coverage of safe sanitation. Lack of sanitation coverage in rural, geographically challenged, and rapidly increasing population density areas is particularly challenging due to cost and feasibility barriers to sewered connections. Non-sewered sanitation (NSS) systems are a potential solution to provide safely managed sanitation services according to strict wastewater treatment standards. The NEWgenerator, a NSS technology which uses an anaerobic membrane bioreactor, ion exchange, and electrochlorination, was simulated in QSDsan to determine the economic and environmental feasibility in different deployment contexts and to prioritize targeted improvements to advance the system sustainability. The configuration of the NEWgenerator using direct photovoltaic electricity had 1.2 cents higher cost at 0.113 [0.105 – 0.124] USD·cap-1·day-1 but 8.7 kg CO2-eq·cap-1·year-1 lower GHG emissions at 67.7 [38.5 – 113.6] kg CO2eq·cap-1·year-1 compared to the configuration using electricity from the grid. The use of location-specific parameters in a country-specific analysis for five countries (China, India, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda) resulted in variation in photovoltaic user cost and GHG emissions from 0.055 USD·cap-1·day-1 and 65.3 kg CO2eq·cap-1·year-1 in Uganda to 0.091 USD·cap-1·day-1 and 76.6 kg CO2eq·cap-1·year-1 in China. This research provides evidence of the NEWgenerator as a low-cost, low-emission, NSS backend technology with potential for resource recovery to increase access to safe sanitation globally. The financing of NSS technologies, such as the NEWgenerator, has not been readily explored due to its more recent development. Therefore, understanding of financing mechanisms such as subsidies, results-based, microfinance, blended finance, and market-based models and their characteristics to quantify their impact on life cycle costs is vital to efficiently allocate resources.
Graduation Semester
2022-08
Type of Resource
Thesis
Handle URL
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115919
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2022 Shion Watabe

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