Addendum of data related to drying of faecal sludge from on-site sanitation facilities and fresh faeces

Abstract

The present document consists of an addendum of data to the Handbook of Methods for Faecal Sludge Analysis. It is part of a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates (BMGF) through the OPP1164143, untitled “Characterization of faecal material during drying”. This project was granted for funding after the 5-years Transformative Technologies convening at the BMGF headquarters in 2016, where drying was recognized as a gap in the transformative technologies for the implementation of innovative sanitation technologies. The addendum of data compiles the results from experiments directly related to drying or having indirect implications in the process. The data was obtained from experimental work conducted from 2013 to date, and involving several research institutions. As the addendum of data is an initiative led by the Pollution Research Group at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, most of the data come from this research group. Partner institutions adhered to this initiative and shared their data, including: (i) Swansea University through the SPECIFIC research group; (ii) Cranfield University through their Bioenergy laboratory; (iii) Duke University through their WASH-AID centre; (iv) Laval University through their Civil and Water Engineering department; (v) Victoria University through their Public & Environmental Engineering laboratory; (vi) Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG) through their Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development (SANDEC) department. In the addendum, the data is organized in datasheets that are categorized in different thematics according to the content. In each datasheet, the data is displayed as graphs and includes an interpretation. In addition to this, the datasheets contain the basic information that is required to understand how the data was obtained, including the information about the feedstock, laboratory equipment, experimental conditions and performed analysis. The datasheets also offer the bibliographic references about where the results can be found in literature and the hyperlink to access to the raw files with the data. Moreover, this document includes a background with a landscape about faecal sludge drying, description of the fundamentals aspects from faecal sludge drying to understand better the significance and applicability of the data, and a summary of the analysis from results from the datasheets with their practical implications in the field. The datasheets were categorized into eight groups: thermodynamics, kinetics, physiochemical properties, morphology, mechanical properties, dewaterability, disinfection, gas emission. Different types of faecal samples were involved on the generation of the data: fresh faeces and faecal sludge from various types of onsite sanitation facilities, among which ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrines, urine diversion dry toilets (UDDT), anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) from a decentralized wastewater treatment plant (DEWAT).