The Loowatt System

It’s one thing to understand the exciting potential of a value-generating toilet system, but extracting that value in real world situations is entirely another.

Loowatt has developed a model that can calculate system outputs based on inputs, and the value of those outputs depending upon the context where the system is installed. Considerations include number of users, types of waste, and uses of energy. Alongside this model, we have developed a method for adapting the system to maximize its value in a given context.

Our current pilot system in Antananarivo, Madagascar, has presented an exciting opportunity to test our implementation model in a real world environment. Energy from biogas will increase the value of toilet ownership, while fertilizer products will feed value back into the whole system.

This is an existing sanitation block in FAAMI, Antananarivo, where our pilot system will take place. It has 6 toilets and about 250 visitors a day.

In Antananarivo, the digester and toilet are combined into an Energy Unit. This means that the toilet owner also has an energy source. Compost facilities are semi-centralized, to serve 50-100 energy units.

They service the energy units, and use further processing to refine, package and sell the digester output as fertilizer.

One way or another, all toilets have systems: treatment, servicing, inputs and outputs.