Sanitation Resource Recovery

Sanitation is a human right. However, willingness to pay for sanitation services is often topic of discussion. A potential solution is to make these services more affordable by transforming the sanitation service chain into a sanitation business chain. This could be achieved by integrating potential revenues from resource recovery.

During this course the participants will learn about different resource recovery opportunities along the sanitation chain. By the end of this course the participants should be able to discuss the different resource recovery processes, explain the main physicochemical and microbial mechanisms behind each of them and design laboratory experiments to assess the feasibility of the process.

The course comprises two weeks. At the start an overall perspective on resource recovery is given to the participants. After this, the student will study a specific case (participants are encouraged to bring one of their own) and suggest potential resource recovery opportunities. To do so, participants have access to study material and regular meetings with experts in the field of sanitation. At the end of the course, participants present their conclusions to the class.

Throughout these two weeks, participants also learn how to perform physical, chemical and biological experiments to recover a product.

The course is evaluated on the presentation, executive summary report and peer review by the other participants during the presentation. Both presentation and executive summary include a physiochemical and microbial explanation as well as potential laboratory feasibility experiments of the chosen process.