Sustainably, safely converting waste into valuable resources
Idea Summary for the Duke Start-Up Challenge
October 30, 2014
Aaron Forbis-Stokes, Pratt School of Engineering – PhD Student, 2016,
Emma Smith, TrinitySchool of Arts and Sciences, 2016,
(Note: please change the filename for this file to “Your Team Name”)
Write a summary description: In a few paragraphs, describe what problem you are solving, how many people are experiencing the problem, and what your solution is.
Important Note: The summary paragraphs will be posted on our website. Please do not write anything sensitive or confidential for this first question.
According to the latest estimates 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation, contributing to diarrheal diseases being the 4th highest cause of global morbidity [1]. Even in areas with access to improved sanitation, inadequate treatment and management continues to allow the spread of diarrheal diseases. Fecal waste collected onsite, often in pit latrines, is often not properly managed, and once collection systems are full, wastes re-enter the environment. The need for onsite sanitation is considerably high as 2.7 billion people currently rely on these technologies, and the number is expected to grow to 5 billion by 2030 [2]. Onsite systems are commonly seen as rural or temporary solutions but have become increasingly important for urban populations as one billion people using onsite systems live in urban areas of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In Sub-Saharan Africa 65-100% of sanitation in urban areas is through onsite systems[2]. Proper management of these systems is particularly important in urban areas where malfunctioning systems can have a magnified impact on health.
The proposed solution of Aspire Engineering is to meet this need for improved sanitation and proper management of onsite systems. This goal is achieve by providing a self-sustaining treatment technology that can be easily and cheaply implemented and operated in low-resource urban settings. This technology has already been developed by a research group at Duke University and field-tested at household and multi-household levels. Research indicates that the technology is expected to operate more efficiently at larger scales, here designed to serve a community of 500-1,000 residents per unit. The only required input to the system is fecal waste which is then used to generate energy that powers the treatment technology, producing outputs of sterile, nutrient rich liquid that can be reused and excess energy from fecal conversion.
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Tell us more about the problem you are solving. Why is it a problem and how big of a problem is it?
Is it something painful for customers? Do many people share this problem? Convince us, briefly, that this is something people want to solve (i.e. that it is painful in some way) and something that many people want solved.
The objective of Aspire Engineering is to decrease the spread of diarrheal disease, a risk factor for loss of life for billions today, through reliable, effective, and cost-efficient treatment of fecal waste.
Who do you think your target customers are and how many are there?
If your target customers are people who have a certain kind of illness, how many of them are there? If your target customers are college students in the US, how many are there? The Duke libraries (and thebusiness databasesavailable at the Fuqua Library) can be helpful for this kind of market research. Try to do a "bottoms up" approach where you count the number of customers that fit your target profile, rather than a "top down" approach where you choose a large number and guess that "a percent" of that number must be willing to buy your product/service. Check out this post on "Addressable Market: Making the Estimate" by Duke alumMark Peter Davis'01
The Aspire Treatment System is designed to serve the one billion and growing living in urban areas of less developed countries and relying on onsite sanitation. The targeted customers are the local municipalities, development agencies, and NGOs serving these populations.
Do you think your customers are looking for a solution?
Are they satisfied with what is out there? Have they tried everything and other solutions just don't work? Often times a company's biggest competitor is that the "customers are ok doing nothing". Given a choice of using your solution or doing nothing, what will they do?
As international agencies and governments seek to find means of providing improved sanitation and fecal sludge management for the 2.5 billion people in need, more innovative solutions will be needed.
Tell us about your solution. How does it work and what are the benefits?
A picture can be helpful here. Assume we agree that there are customers out there and they need a solution, tell us what your solution is. Help us believe that your solution is one that makes sense to solving this problem.
The Aspire Treatment Unit uses the design of the Anaerobic Digestion Pasteurization Latrine (ADPL) developed by Dr. Marc Deshusses’s research group in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department. Undiluted human wastes are added to an anaerobic digester where they are broken down and consumed by the microorganisms in the digester and produce biogas, a combustible mixture of methane and carbon dioxide. The effluent from the digester flows into a heat treatment system powered by burning the biogas and is heated to 70 °C, a temperature well-documented for achieving pathogen inactivation in a short period of time (~10 min). Figure 1 below displays the conceptual design and flow of the original ADPL design.
Figure 1. Conceptual design of ADPL.
The design provides a simple, low-cost sanitation technology that self-sustainably treats wastes to prevent the spread of diarrheal disease. Our group’s lab studies have shown that approximately ~60% of the biogas produced by a family of 10 is required to operate the heating system at 70 °C, and the amount of excess biogas increases with higher inputs. The system, therefore, outputs biogas, a valuable source of alternative energy, and a sterile nutrient rich effluent which can be reused as a fertilizer.The ADPL has been field tested in the Philippines, Kenya, and India at scales treating for 10, 25-30, and 50-75 users, respectively.
The Aspire Treatment Unit takes this design and scales it to a treatment capacity of 500-1,000 users per day. A simple, cost-effective design takes a used shipping container as the structure with internal retrofits for anaerobic digestion, pasteurization, and process controls (Figure 2).This design allows the system to be used on a community level as a fecal sludge management solution, operating as a dumping site for waste removed from pit latrines. The design also takes advantage of economies of scale and low-cost, readily available materials. This system incorporates designs and observations from field studies in three countries over two years as well as intensive research on optimal digester designs and biological filtration processes for maximal efficiency and production of high quality outputs for reuse. Digester design will be based on intensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling that will take place over the remainder of the year, and laboratory-scale biological filtration experiments will begin at the end of the year to provide a cleaner, more aesthetically pleasing effluent.
Figure 2. Sketch of community scale Aspire Treatment Unit.
The application is for urban areas using onsite sanitation. Onsite systems have to be periodically emptied and taken to appropriate treatment facilities. This process is done through the use of pump trucks or by manual emptying. Pump trucks are prohibited by access to pits in many areas as well as prohibited by transport time and fuel costs to take to centralized waste treatment plants. Manual emptiers face hurdles in having a safe treatment center nearby. These challenges often lead to the waste being dumped into the environment. The Aspire Treatment Unit aims to provide a solution to this problem through local, accessible treatment to prevent fecal waste from entering the environment. Figure 3 below shows interactions of the Aspire Treatment Unit. Interactions in blue are services that can be later developed for communities without existing sanitation systems or service networks.
Figure 3. Aspire Treatment Unit service interactions.
Do you have any regulatory hurdles, and how will you get around them?
This matters more for healthcare (med device and pharmaceutical) ideas, though it can apply to other industries that are regulated. If it doesn't apply to you, you can delete this question.
Regulation of the market is low. The main regulations to be met pertain to meeting treatment standards. The Aspire Treatment Unit design will meet pathogen treatment standards as is. The system is expected to meet organic and nutrient standards for reuse and efforts will be made to meet discharge standards where necessary. Additional changes to the design can be made to fit the context.
Do you have intellectual property (IP) that can be protected? Is it protected?
This matters more for technology based ideas (especially medical device, pharmaceutical, hardware, some forms of software). In general, there are four types of intellectual property, trademarks, copyrights, patents, and trade secrets. Here is a decent overview on thebasics of intellectual property (powerpoint)
For our document, we ask this question as it relates to patents. But if you feel that other forms of IP will be important for your business, you can answer this question.If, however, you feel this question is not critical for you, you can delete this question.
A provisional patent was filed but later dropped for the initial ADPL concept. The Aspire Treatment System can be patented which will be explored.
What's your plan for developing your product or service including some dates and milestones?
A milestone often is a point where a product is ready to be sold to customers, or a key technical breakthrough is proven in a research study. Here are a couple of posts on milestones for tech startups (revise to suit your industry):Milestones to Startup Successand "Quora: What are the typical milestones and timeline..."
November-December:CFD modeling for digester design
November-December: Research and design of biological filters
January-February: Lab-scale operation of biological filters
March-April:Materials and design research for local system
May:Materials procurement and design for local system
June-July:Construction of local system
August-September:Local system operation and monitoring
October:Pilot study design and setup
November:Pilot study materials procurement and design
December-January:Construction of pilot system
February-May:Pilot system operation and monitoring, business development
Tell us about your competitors and the competitive landscape
A World Bank case study of Bangladesh, Indonesia, Peru, and Tanzania found that improving sanitation systems to be a $300 million a year market, and emptying services in Indonesia alone to be worth $100 million a year [3]. The global sanitation market is enormous and relatively untapped, and the needs are massive. Large donor foundations such as World Bank and the Gates Foundation, along with many other donor agencies and NGOs, have begun toencourage sanitation as a business. The competitive landscape is growing but remains small, creating an environment open to trying new innovative ideas.
Similar scale treatment technologies are being developed through funds by the Gates Foundation, but the Aspire Treatment Unit expects to be produced at much lower cost than alternatives. Figure 4 below displays the product positioning of the Aspire Treatment Unit to competitors.
Figure 4. Aspire Treatment Unit product positioning.
How much funding to get to a company exit?
A company exit is a special milestone where a company, usually through an acquisition (being purchased by another company) or through an initial public offering (IPO) is able to return capital (money) to the founders and to other shareholders. Most investors want to invest in a company so that when the company "exits", they make back their money and then some. They are trying to make enough money where their returns are higher than if they were to just invest in the stock market.
The initial development of the Aspire Treatment Unity can achieved through $50,000 for research and development activities, piloting, and initial company development. Taking the system to market is expected to require an additional $250,000 to support labor of engineers and manufacturing, capital cost of systems, production facility rental space, and field site travel. The long-term plan of this company is not to “exit” but to continue running the company and returning portions of revenue to investors based on investment level.
Phil Libin (CEO of Evernote) argues thatyour life's work should have no exit strategy (video). He also talks, in the Q&A, about how some west coast investors are achieving a return before their portfolio companies reach an exit.
Jessica Mah of inDinero (which she started while she was a student at Berkeley) has a good article titled "How much money should my company raise?"
Bobby Bahram spoke at the DukeGEN Speaker Series on how tocreate your startup financials (video).
Tell us about yourselves (Who is on your team, what are you studying, what year are you)
This is important. Tell us why your team is a good one to invest in? Have you built something before? Can you build this company?
Looking for a technical co-founder? Read this insightful post by Duke alumJason Freedman'02 "Please, please, please stop asking how to find a techincal co-founder"
Aaron Forbis-Stokes is a third-year PhD student in environmental engineering. His research focus is onsite sewage treatment for developing countries. His work so far at Duke has been developing an innovative onsite treatment system through pilot studies to determine field efficacy and researching technical process improvements for increased efficiency. Aaron served as the lead facilitator in initiating and designing field studies and the continued monitoring of those studies. Field activities included constructing and implementing systems in Kenya, India, and the Philippines during the summers of 2013 and 2014. These systems serve 25-30 peri-urban residents, 50-75 urban residents, and 5-10 rural residents, respectively.
Emma Smith is currently in her third year in the Trinity School of Arts and Sciences. Before coming to Duke, Emma partnered with a team in Cambodia to assist in a number of projects, including the development of bio sand water filtration systems in rural communities. Since arriving to Duke, Emma has continued to work in entrepreneurial field development projects. Most recently, in Northern Togo, she founded a microfinance initiative for young adults, and in Morocco and Southern Spain, she developed a strategy for resettlement agencies to use to help newly arrived refugees find employment opportunities. Emma is pursuing a degree in Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Arabic.
Use of Funds - if you won $50,000 how would you use it?
Activity / CostResearch: COMSOL CFD software, Effluent filtration experiments / $2,500
Construction: Shipping container, internal modifications, heating system, controls / $5,000
Pilot: Construction, travel, monitoring / $17,500
Business development: Seeking partners and funding, marketing, travel, rental space, and constructing additional units / $25,000
Anything else you would like to share with us?