Scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have developed a new toilet system that converts human waste to electricity and fertiliser.
Dubbed the “No-Mix Vacuum Toilet”, the system has two chambers which separate liquid and solid wastes.
It also reduces the amount of water needed for flushing by up to 90 per cent, compared to current toilet systems in Singapore.
“Singapore has been relatively clean over the last few decades, but we can still improve a little bit,” associate professor Wang Jing-Yuan, Director of NTU’s Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre, said.
“In Singapore we don’t have natural resources, that’s why we’ve been thinking, can we use all these waste materials? To me, all these waste materials, they are resources.”
Scientists have been working on the system since 2010.
There are now plans to carry out a six month trial starting in July.
Prototypes will be installed in two toilets in NTU and will be used by some 500 students.
Talks are also underway to test bed the project in a new town in two years’ time.
Scientists hope to commercialise the system and export it to other countries in the future.
