Semilla Sanitation Hubs

Providing basic necessities for life

The technology is developed to treat human waste and recover fertilizers and apply it for nutritious plant growth in a closed system.

Use Case

The unit will be placed in refugee camps and humanitarian aid projects and offers sanitation, patented sludge treatment (yellow, grey and black water streams) and plant production facilities in mobile and modular units that can be linked or work independent from each other. The human waste streams, which are collected from the sanitation, are treated on-site by several automated hygienisation steps and this process results in clean irrigation water and fertilizers in the form of compost and Struvite. These end products are then applied for [nutritious] plant growth in the Semilla plant production facility or they can be applied for plant or tree production wherever necessary. The system is self sufficient, operates off-grid with solar panels and there is no environmental pollution.

Potential

The technology is build to solve problems that are linked to the SDG’s namely Zero Hunger and Clean Water and Sanitation. Because of the growing world population there is an increasing demand for recourses to grow food. And this growing population results in more human waste streams which needs to be dealt with. Our technology will use the resources from the growing human waste streams and apply it for plant growth. By doing this, the increased stream of human waste can be utilised for an increased plant production. By combining these aspects our technology is able to help build an equilibrium between the two UN SDG’s. The Semilla technologies can be applied almost anywhere in the world since the fundamentals for which Semilla is build are paramount for every society.

Business Case

The sludge treatment and plant units are offered separately or in combination and can be purchased or rented. The units can be tailor made to small remote villages or full size refugee camps. The strategy for the coming years is to sell the technology to festivals. We have already done successful pilots at festivals in the Netherlands. After this phase, we offer the technology to humanitarian interventions. This can be emergency but also permanent aid. The customers in this instances are ngo’s like Red Cross, UNHCR, etc. After this phase, our focus will also go to the hospitality and construction sector were we offer our technology for companies who want to decrease their sludge waste and simultaneously recover nutrients and clean water that can be used for food production.

Objectives:

  1. Optimize technology of nutrient recovery and water reuse in terms of energy consumption, volume efficiency and total production time.
  2. Test the different modular units in developing countries, refugee camps and humanitarian aid scenarios and pivot where necessary
  3. Bring an alternative to fertilizer production by using the waste water streams from humans for feeding the increasing population

Team Semilla Sanitation Hubs

Oss, Netherlands

Our Team

Our Mission

Our objective is to provide sanitation, sludge treatment and food in the form of nutritious plants to people in humanitarian aid projects. By doing this, deadly diseases due to poor hygiene standards can be minimized and people have access to clean water and fertilizers that can be used for improving crop production on site. We use space technology developed for life support systems on long term missions to improve the life on Earth and close the loops for global sustainable development.

Our Background

Semilla is run by a team of people who have a knack for sustainability. The team is consulted by a passioned entrepreneur. The rest of the team consist of an engineer who is specialised in sludge treatment technology, a business developer who is specialised in food production and the Bio Based Economy and a plant production specialist. We believe that with our knowledge and our drive we can come up with novel innovations that can help the less fortunate in our society.

Our Team

Our Mission

Our objective is to provide sanitation, sludge treatment and food in the form of nutritious plants to people in humanitarian aid projects. By doing this, deadly diseases due ...Read More

Our Background

Semilla is run by a team of people who have a knack for sustainability. The team is consulted by a passioned entrepreneur. The rest of the team consist ...Read More

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    Submitted Final Pitch, including videos and concept details
  • Introduction
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The information contained here represents student project ideas developed as the result of brainstorming activities during Round 1 of the TFF Challenge. It does not represent any final business plans or commercial products.