IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v6y2014i3p1328-1345d33940.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

History and Technology of Terra Preta Sanitation

Author

Listed:
  • Sabino De Gisi

    (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, ENEA, Water Resource Management Lab., via Martiri di Monte Sole 4, Bologna (BO) 40129, Italy)

  • Luigi Petta

    (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, ENEA, Water Resource Management Lab., via Martiri di Monte Sole 4, Bologna (BO) 40129, Italy)

  • Claudia Wendland

    (Women in Europe for a Common Future, WECF, St. Jakobsplatz 10, Munich 80331, Germany)

Abstract

In order to reach the Millennium Development Goals for significantly reducing the number of people without access to adequate sanitation, new holistic concepts are needed focusing on economically feasible closed-loop ecological sanitation systems rather than on expensive end-of-pipe technologies. An analysis of a former civilization in the Amazon (nowadays Brazil) highlights the possibility to close the loop with a more sustainable lifestyle integrating soil fertility, food security, waste management, water protection and sanitation, renewable energy. Terra Preta do Indio is the anthropogenic black soil produced by ancient cultures through the conversion of bio-waste, fecal matter and charcoal into long-term fertile soils. These soils have maintained high amounts of organic carbon several thousand years after they were abandoned. Deriving from these concepts, Terra Preta Sanitation (TPS) has been re-developed and adopted. TPS includes urine diversion, addition of a charcoal mixture and is based on lactic-acid-fermentation with subsequent vermicomposting. Lacto-fermentation is a biological anaerobic process that generates a pre-stabilization of the mixture. The main advantage of lacto-fermentation is that no gas and no odor is produced. What makes it particularly interesting for in-house systems even in urban areas. Instead, vermicomposting is an aerobic decomposition process of the pre-digested materials by the combined action of earthworms and microorganisms. It transforms the carbon and nutrients into the deep black, fertile and stable soil that can be utilized in agriculture. No water, ventilation or external energy is required. Starting from ancient Amazonian civilizations traditional knowledge, the aim of this work is to present TPS systems adopted nowadays.

Suggested Citation

  • Sabino De Gisi & Luigi Petta & Claudia Wendland, 2014. "History and Technology of Terra Preta Sanitation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-18, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:6:y:2014:i:3:p:1328-1345:d:33940
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/3/1328/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/3/1328/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thorsten Schuetze & Joong-Won Lee & Tae-Goo Lee, 2013. "Sustainable Urban (re-)Development with Building Integrated Energy, Water and Waste Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-14, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kyoyoung Hwang & Thorsten Schuetze & Fabrizio M. Amoruso, 2020. "Flood Resilient and Sustainable Urban Regeneration Using the Example of an Industrial Compound Conversion in Seoul, South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-26, January.
    2. Johanna Weststrate & Geske Dijkstra & Jasper Eshuis & Alberto Gianoli & Maria Rusca, 2019. "The Sustainable Development Goal on Water and Sanitation: Learning from the Millennium Development Goals," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 143(2), pages 795-810, June.
    3. Thorsten Schuetze & Vicente Santiago-Fandiño, 2014. "Terra Preta Sanitation: A Key Component for Sustainability in the Urban Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(11), pages 1-26, November.
    4. Silva-Martínez, Rodolfo Daniel & Sanches-Pereira, Alessandro & Ortiz, Willington & Gómez Galindo, Maria Fernanda & Coelho, Suani Teixeira, 2020. "The state-of-the-art of organic waste to energy in Latin America and the Caribbean: Challenges and opportunities," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 509-525.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Antonella Lerario & Silvia Di Turi, 2018. "Sustainable Urban Tourism: Reflections on the Need for Building-Related Indicators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-25, June.
    2. Yunesky Masip Macía & Pablo Rodríguez Machuca & Angel Alexander Rodríguez Soto & Roberto Carmona Campos, 2021. "Green Hydrogen Value Chain in the Sustainability for Port Operations: Case Study in the Region of Valparaiso, Chile," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-17, December.
    3. Thorsten Schuetze, 2015. "Zero Emission Buildings in Korea—History, Status Quo, and Future Prospects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-23, March.
    4. Carmona, Roberto & Miranda, Ricardo & Rodriguez, Pablo & Garrido, René & Serafini, Daniel & Rodriguez, Angel & Mena, Marcelo & Fernandez Gil, Alejandro & Valdes, Javier & Masip, Yunesky, 2024. "Assessment of the green hydrogen value chain in cases of the local industry in Chile applying an optimization model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 300(C).
    5. Ziyi Wang & Zengqiao Chen & Cuiping Ma & Ronald Wennersten & Qie Sun, 2022. "Nationwide Evaluation of Urban Energy System Resilience in China Using a Comprehensive Index Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-36, February.
    6. Abdul Rehman & Magdalena Radulescu & Laura Mariana Cismas & Rafael Alvarado & Carmen Gabriela Secara & Claudia Tolea, 2022. "Urbanization, Economic Development, and Environmental Degradation: Investigating the Role of Renewable Energy Use," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-14, July.
    7. Devi Bühler & Thorsten Schuetze & Ranka Junge, 2015. "Towards Development of a Label for Zero Emission Buildings: A Tool to Evaluate Potential Zero Emission Buildings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(5), pages 1-23, April.
    8. Kılkış, Şiir, 2019. "Benchmarking the sustainability of urban energy, water and environment systems and envisioning a cross-sectoral scenario for the future," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 529-545.
    9. Sharifi, Ayyoob & Yamagata, Yoshiki, 2016. "Principles and criteria for assessing urban energy resilience: A literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1654-1677.
    10. Thorsten Schuetze & Vicente Santiago-Fandiño, 2014. "Terra Preta Sanitation: A Key Component for Sustainability in the Urban Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(11), pages 1-26, November.
    11. Yabo Zhao & Shaojian Wang, 2015. "The Relationship between Urbanization, Economic Growth and Energy Consumption in China: An Econometric Perspective Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(5), pages 1-19, May.
    12. Franco, Sainu & Mandla, Venkata Ravibabu & Ram Mohan Rao, K., 2017. "Urbanization, energy consumption and emissions in the Indian context A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 898-907.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:6:y:2014:i:3:p:1328-1345:d:33940. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.