LooPi is a sustainable and circular public toilet system which uses plants to treat wastewater in an integrated vertically constructed wetland ecosystem. This treated wastewater is reused for flushing, and nutrients from the wastewater are further transformed into fertilizer.
LooPi is currently offered in two ways:
- LooPi urinal prototype 1.0:
In collaboration with EOOS Design GmbH and the BOKU (university of natural resources and life sciences) alchemia-nova developed a LooPi prototype urinal.
How does the current LooPi prototype urinal work?
LooPi contributes to the circular economy providing a full nutrient cycle. When a visitor has used the LooPi toilet, urine mixed with water is run through the soil. The microbial conversion processes at the plant roots in symbiosis with plant processes and uptake, remove contaminants and partly convert them into plant available nutrients. This way, the plants are fed by the wastewater and the water is simultaneously purified. Due to the special ventilation, LooPi works odourless. The rest of the nutrients are gathered in biochar: a charcoal-like substance that’s made by burning organic material from agricultural and forestry wastes. This nutrient-enriched biochar can be used as organic fertilizer for agricultural purposes.
LooPi urinal prototype specific features:
- Mobile
- Gender Neutral Off-the-Grid Automatic flushing with purified waste water
Technical data:
- Size: 4,20 m l x 3,05 m h x 2,40 m w
- Weight: 13,5 t distributed on 8 support points
- Capacity: treatment of 30 L urine / 24 hr
- Energy consumption: 5 kWh / d > 200 plants from over 30 species
Downloadable 2-pager PDF
Benefits:
- Reduces water consumption by up to 90%
- Captures nutrients from urine in biochar and turns them into agricultural fertilizer
- Is gender neutral and child-friendly
- Captures CO2 from atmosphere
Cools surrounding air in urban spaces Increases biodiversity
2. LooPi technology applied to existing regular toilets
Although the LooPi urinal prototype functions as a brilliant showcase for our technology, it is the magic of the plants feeding off and treating the toilet wastewater that is most valuable. Besides our developed LooPi prototype, LooPi technology can be applied on existing (also regular, not only urinal) toilets. This way, any toilet can be turned into a LooPi.
Requirements for LooPi prototype urinal locations:
- Rainwater drainage closeby is beneficial
- Connection to water source closeby is beneficial
- Connection to the energy grid closeby is beneficial
How did LooPi start?
The technology behind LooPi was developed by alchemia-nova and is a vertical ecosystem for decentralized greywater treatment in an EU research project (demEAUmed, FP7): “vertECO©”. vertECO© green walls clean waste water to be reused as service water, saving water consumption and treating wastewater with very low energy demand, as based on photosynthetic activity of the implemented plants.
LooPi is a functional green infrastructure supporting sustainability and circular economy.
Addressing the following SDGs:
Circularity:
Closing the water cycle and the nutrient cycle.
LooPi is designed to be dismantled and reused/recycled.
Awards:
Press (in german):
- Futurezone “Pflanzen-Klo spart Wasser und reinigt sich selbst”
- Die Presse “Hinter’s Gebüsch hockerln? Das geht jetzt ökologisch sinnvoll!”
- Die Presse “Weltpremiere in Wien: Ein Urinal als Teil einer Umweltmission”
- Kurier “Das fliegende Pflanzen-Urinal im Esterházypark”
- Mein Bezirk “Eine Toilette sorgt für besseres Klima”
- brutkasten “Award für mit 280.000 Euro gefördertes Unisex-Pflanzen-Urinal”
- Wien ORF.at “Nachhaltiges Klo soll Umgebung kühlen”
- DerStandard “Kreislaufwirtschaft auf dem stillen Örtchen”
