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Old 26-05-2011, 06:52   #1
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Waste Water & Sewage Treatment System Onboard

I was cruising thru a June issue of Popular Science and ran across an award that had been given to this potential onboard sewage treatment device. I thought it definitely deserved some discussion on these forums.

"What if we could eliminate sewage? The ZLD virtually does just that! It takes the sewage (solids and liquids), grinds them up and homogenizes the solids in the liquid.

The ZLD then takes that liquid (that looks like chocolate milk) and pressurizes it and sprays this liquid into the hot exhaust gas of the engine. The hot engine gas vaporizes the liquid, and kills the bacteria and basically eliminates the sewage with no odor no liquid or no sludge to handle."

I went looking for a website and found this,
Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) Sewage Elimination System
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Old 26-05-2011, 19:13   #2
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Re: Waste Water & Sewage Treatment System, onboard

Here we go again...this idea re-surfaces about every 10 years. It was first tried in RVs about 30 years ago...and it actually seemed to work pretty well....at least till the animal fats in waste began clogging up catalytic converters and mufflers. There was also one more minor problem: unbearable odor that gassed everyone in vehicles up to a quarter mile behind an RV equipped with this system. So...it didn't last long.

Several other would-be inventors have tried to make it work in RVs with no better success...but the first--the ONLY--attempt to put on a boat was about 15 years ago. Some Europeans put one on a muscle boat...it worked, they put it on the market for a couple thousand bucks. What THEY overlooked was, very few boats except muscle boats have dry exhausts...and wet exhausts don't hot enough to incinerate anything. Plus, there was still that pesky odor problem and those darned animals fats. It was a short-lived venture.

Now, here we go again... This guy CLAIMS to have solved the odor problem, but doesn't address the animal fats (it takes some time or some VERY heavy toilet use for those build up enough to start to cause problems, so he may not even be aware of it yet). So while it may work on a RV, it still wouldn't work on most boats because most boats have wet exhausts.

The most creative use of engines IMO was the person who first thought of strapping a pot roast to the engine block of an RV...400 miles later, dinner.
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Old 27-05-2011, 09:22   #3
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Re: Waste Water & Sewage Treatment System, onboard

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The most creative use of engines IMO was the person who first thought of strapping a pot roast to the engine block of an RV...400 miles later, dinner.
Wait a few hours after running the engine and the valve cover makes a dandy place to raise bread dough and make yogurt.
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Old 27-05-2011, 11:41   #4
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Re: Waste Water & Sewage Treatment System Onboard

Dang! I hope this idea doesn't sell because I am just about ready to patent my invention. Called the 'Dunny Chucker' the days Jabsco contents are loaded into the Chucker and out of date flares strapped to its butt, aimed, and fired out of the Anchorage to land in International Waters.


All test firings to date have been sucessful, though 3 pirates were injured last week.



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Old 27-05-2011, 11:52   #5
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Re: Waste Water & Sewage Treatment System Onboard

As with most onboard sewage treatment ideas, I suspect it's doomed to fail regardless of whether or not it works. Many jurisdictions outlaw the discharge of sewage within their borders, period- it often doesn't matter whether it's raw, chlorinated, macerated, irradiated, incinerated, or atomized into whatever goes back into the Starship Enterprise's replicator when you tell it "recycle".
So you need a holding tank anyway. And if you have a holding tank, you'll either dump it 3.1 miles offshore for free, or get it pumped out when you're in port. As long as you're required by law to have that tank, there's no economic justification for on-board sewage treatment.
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Old 27-05-2011, 13:23   #6
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Re: Waste Water & Sewage Treatment System Onboard

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Dang! I hope this idea doesn't sell because I am just about ready to patent my invention. Called the 'Dunny Chucker' the days Jabsco contents are loaded into the Chucker and out of date flares strapped to its butt, aimed, and fired out of the Anchorage to land in International Waters.All test firings to date have been sucessful, though 3 pirates were injured last week.Mark
Ohhhh, Lordy...I'd KILL to see a video of that ! In fact, I'd even pay real money to see it!
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Old 27-05-2011, 14:18   #7
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Re: Waste Water & Sewage Treatment System Onboard

Disguising it as exhaust, eh! Clever! Just take a swim and cut loose; no laws agin that is there??
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