Loowatt

An off-grid sanitation and power system that combines waterless toilets with an anaerobic digester to deliver hygienic and odourless management of waste with the production of bottled gas for heating and cooking.

Loowatt is a revolutionary waterless toilet system that creates local economies around waste treatment by converting human waste into natural gas and fertilizer

The system comprises of a toilet that uses a dry liner, a storage and distribution system that takes the waste to an anaerobic digester which then transforms the waste into methane gas which is bottled or used to power an electrical generator. Loowatt first came about as a degree project in Industrial Design Engineering at the Royal College of Art, by its inventor Virginia Gardiner.

The Loowatt team comprises of designers, an engineer and business people, all of whom are committed to creating a paradigm shift in sanitation.

Virginia Gardiner joined the Innovation Entrepreneurship Design Fellowship at the Imperial College Business School and an interdisciplinary team of MBA students and engineers, to further develop the Loowatt system, and ensure that it would be economically and environmentally sustainable, as well as socially and culturally acceptable to users.

In 2010 the team enhanced the toilet design alongside Chris Holden and talented design engineers from the RCA and Brunel University. Also, Loowatt completed its proof of concept by producing a functional test site with five toilets and a bio-digester in the UK. This will be a version for use in developed countries, at festivals, campsites, building sites and other places where it can refine its design for volume markets.

In addition to the Incubator investment, Loowatt has already matched this funding with an investment by private equity. The first prototypes for proof of concept testing received an excellent response. Currently, they have secured significant interest from a major UK based construction company.