HYANNIS – Cape Cod Community College is hoping that a closed-loop flush toilet system demonstration will pique the interest of others on the Cape during the Smarter Cape Summit next week.
The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Kohler will showcase the system as a working alternative to wastewater treatment at the invitation of Cape Cod Community College.
The system, designed by engineer faculty and graduate students at Caltech, was the winner of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Reinvent the Toilet Challenge.
Kohler has partnered with Caltech to begin production for the global market.
The Caltech system is an onsite wastewater treatment and recycling unit that can be powered by solar panels or by connection to the electrical grid.
The fully integrated treatment system includes: in-situ disinfection, by-product extraction, the generation of hydrogen as a by-product of waste treatment, a solar energy battery storage system, solar arrays, and a microfiltration component for final polishing of the water before reuse and recycling.
Under development, the system has been installed for field-testing in select locations around the world lacking adequate sanitation.
There will be a demonstration 3:30 p.m. at the Smarter Cape Summit session hosted by Cape Cod Community College.
The College’s President, John Cox, has been following this project for some time and is working towards its installation at the West Barnstable campus to show its effectiveness in fighting the Cape’s surface and ground water contamination problem.
“The president is very, very interested number one in the global connection for the college, but number two, in really making an impact on the environment around us and being a demonstration project for this process is very, very important,” said college spokesman Michael Gross.
