TECHNICAL FIELD
The present subject matter relates to pretreatment of waste in biotoilets to facilitate complete degradation. The invention specifically relates to a grinding and sorting assembly for waste to prevent clogging and ease of maintenance of biodigestors in biotoilets.
BACKGROUND
Indian railways are often described as world’s biggest toilets, ejecting around 3,80 tonnes of faecal matter onto the trackers every day as per data in 2013. To solve this problem, biotoilets have been installed in India railways. In these bio-toilets, the water requirement per flushing is up to 15 litres. And the water doesn't generate 15 enough pressure to discharge the waste from the pots, resulting in a foul smell and blockage of the pot. The weight of empty tank is 110 kg and that of full tank is 410 kg therefore cleaning and maintenance is cost and manpower extensive. The bio-toilets have been deployed in Indian trains over four years to 2017, at a cost of Rs 1,305 crore, but these are no better than septic tank. The studies by IITM indicate that 20 the biotoilet system has failed. The government now plans to install vacuum toilets which will be huge investment as these shall be imported. The vacuum toilets will solve the problem of blockage, however they will need to be emptied and cleaned in rail yards. Need is felt for providing improvement in the biotoilets to make them effective through indigenous cost effective system and achieve eco-friendly system 25 for management of human faecal matter by railways.
OBJECTIVES OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
To provide a system to be integrated with the biotoilets for processing body waste as well as other waste received in the toilets for improved processing by the Biotoilets 30
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To provide a system to detect blockage in the processing system with uninstalling the 5 entire unit
To provide system for reducing drudgery and easy maintenance of toilets systems in vehicles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 10
The detailed description is described with reference to the accompanying figures. The same numbers are used throughout the drawings to reference like features and components:
Fig. 1 illustrates the pretreatment assembly (100), in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter. 15
Figs. 2 illustrates the disassembled view of the Pretreatment assembly (100) in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.
Figs. 3a, and 3b illustrate the view of the pretreatment assembly (100) as installed in the Biodigestor (109) of Biotoilets, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter. 20
Figs. 4a and 4b illustrate the first compartment of the assembly in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.
Figs. 5a, 5b and 5c illustrate the second compartment, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.
Figs. 6a, 6b and 6b illustrate the turbine system in accordance with an embodiment of 25 the present subject matter.
Figs. 7 illustrates the waste collector (106) in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The assembly(100) has been designed to fit with the Bio-digester(109) as illustrated in Fig 2, which have been installed in majority of the trains in Indian railways. The 10 assembly(100) comprises a system for grinding and sorting of the waste received in the toilets which is primarily human body waste and may include other substances such as paper, cloth, napkins etc. This grinding and sorting system has been designed to run on renewable energy. The assembly shall comprise a turbine system to harness wind energy generated by the running train which will operate the system. The 15 grinding system will breakdown human waste into finer particles before it is released to the biodigestor (109) containing the bacteria for degradation and conversion of the faeces into usable water and gases. This will increase the surface area of the waste multiple times, for action by the bacteria, thereby leading to quicker and complete degradation of the body waste. 20
On the other hand the waste such as plastic, cloth and any other non biodegradable materials which are received in the system will be pushed to the walls of the waste collector (106) of the assembly and will not be able to enter the biodigestor (109). This will prevent the biodigestor (109) from clogging. With no clogging there would be no need to uninstall the heavy biodigestors tanks for their cleaning which is a huge 25 problem at present.
The assembly has been designed for ease of cleaning and easy removal of the assembly from the biodigestor (109) for removing the unwanted material collected in the waste collector.
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This assembly will also work as garbage collector and choking prevention system for 5 the Biotoilets which shall be easy to maintain.
Components of the Assembly
Housing- The entire turbine enabled grinding and sorting system will be installed in a 10 housing which can be fitted and installed with the biodigestor (109) illustrated in Figure 2 and 3. The housing shall have two compartments. The first compartment (101) which shall form the upper compartment shall be a chamber with two horizontally placed openings (110 and 110’) openings- to allow the wind to blow upon the fan (102) of the turbine to covert wind energy to mechanical energy. The 15 first compartment (101) will house the fan (102) of the turbine system with its fan (102) and first end of the shaft (103). The first compartment shall have opening (103) on the top for allowing the air to escape.
The first compartment (101) shall be connected to the second compartment (107) 20 which shall form the lower compartment and be made in a manner to hold the waste collector (106) and to allow the turbine shaft(103) to rotate inside the waste (106). In an example it will be a broad framework of metal roads preferably cylindrical in shape. The second compartment (101) will remain immersed in the fluid system of the biodigestor (109). The first compartment (101) and the second compartment are 25 separated from each other by removable plates (104 and 105) which allow disengagement of the assembly for removing waste from the waste collector (106). The assembly has been designed so that the first compartment (101) will set outside the biodigestor (109) while the second compartment (107) will hang into the biodigestor (109) tank. The two compartments shall remain connected to each other 30 through a plate (112) which shall hold the removable.
Turbine system- In an example as illustrated in Figure 4, the turbine will be a simple system to convert the wind energy generated by the running train into mechanical
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energy using the fan (102) which shall connect with first end of the shaft (103) and 5 rotate the shaft. The wind energy generated by the running train will rotate the blades with high speed converting the kinetic energy to mechanical energy which shall be used to grind the waste by means (110) provided at the second end of the rotating shaft. The second end of the shaft (103) of the turbine system shall extend downwards into the grinding system. The shaft (103) will be provided on the other 10 end with means to grind the waste collected in the waste collector (106).
Grinding system-The grinding system shall comprise of the second end of the shaft which shall extend into the waste collector (106) and will be provided with means (110) such as blades, extensions, protrusions which upon rotation of the shaft (103) 15 will lead to grinding of the waste received in the system.
Waste Collector-The Waste collector (106) shall receive and hold the waste from the waste pipe (108). The waste collector (106) shall have a mesh size sufficient to hold the waste while allowing the finer particles to pass into the fluid of the biodigestor 20 (109) for the bacteria to act upon it. The second end of the turbine shaft (103) will extend into the waste collector (106) provisions such as blades or protrusions to grind the waste during rotation. The waste which cannot be ground beyond the mesh size will be caught and collected in the waste collector (106). The waste collector will have provision by which it can be pulled out from the assembly to clean the non 25 biodegradable waste collected in it.
Clogging Tester- The fan(102) of the turbine will have a provision which shall extend from the opening(103) of the first compartment and will be accessible to the maintenance staff for checking its free movement, this will enable the maintenance 30 staff to check clogging if any in the waste collector (106) bin without disengaging the entire biodigestor(109).
The assembling of the turbine system has been created so as to facilitate easy removal of the parts including the shaft and the waste collector for maintenance and cleaning.

I/We claim:
1. An assembly for pretreatment of waste (100) in biotoilets comprising:
a housing having a first compartment(101) and a second compartment(107) separated by fixed plate (112) and removable plates (104 &105), wherein the first compartment (101) is adapted to hold the fan(102) of 10 wind turbine system(Fig 6) and having a first opening (110) and a second opening (110’) to allow wind to blow through the first compartment (101); the second compartment(107)is a system to hold the waste collector (106) such that the shaft (103) from the turbine can freely rotate inside it; and
a turbine system (Fig 4) having a shaft (103) with a first end and a second 15 end; wherein the first end is adapted to be connected to the fan(102) for rotating the shaft(103) using wind velocity; the second end extends into the second compartment of the housing and is provided with means(110) to grind the waste in the waste collector(111) during rotation; and
a waste collector (106) having a mesh size to allow fine waste particles to 20 enter the biodigestor (109), while the non degradable waste to be collected inside ; adapted to receive and collect waste from the waste pipe (108), further adapted to allow rotation of the second end of the shaft(103) adapted to grind the waste;
a means for testing the free rotation of the shaft adapted to be connected to 25 the first end of the shaft and extending out of the first compartment(101) through its opening (103).
2. An assembly for pretreatment of waste (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second end of shaft(103) is provided with blades, rods, protrusion of variable 30 shape.
3. An assembly for pretreatment of waste (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein 5 the second end of shaft(103) is provided with blades, rods, protrusion of variable shape which is detachable.
4. An assembly for pretreatment of waste (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first compartment(101) and second compartment(107) are separated by removable 10 plates(104 &105).