Mother nature took 600 million years to develop the main components of the environment we live in today, but the existence of human beings over the last one million years has brought in drastic changes that threaten to disrupt the creations of the gifts of Mother Nature. Population explosion, global industrialization, rapid urbanization, illiteracy, negligence and unhealthy customs have resulted in a polluted environment, a threat which is increasing by the day. At present, mankind is often puzzled and unable to find solutions to these environmental problems. Globally, R&D and implementation to address waste issues now rank among the top most priorities. Amongst all the threats, human waste is a very serious health hazard as it is the source for viral, bacterial as well as many protozoan diseases. Many diseases which have faecal-oral transformation route have been wiped out in western countries but still occur in India and other developing countries. The current solutions such as Dry Pit Toilet, Twin Pit Toilet, Septic Tank and Eco-san toilet are inefficient, costly and lead to pollution of water bodies. Human waste is the byproduct of food digestion and comprises of feces and urine which give out a foul smell, contain pathogenic bacteria, viruses and parasites responsible for various diseases like cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, typhoid and hepatitis. These diseases occur due to the contamination of ground (drinking) water and in turn contaminate the food chain. Anaerobic bio-degradation / digestion of human waste matter is the most preferred method of treating human faecal matter because of its inherent advantages like…
AMI is a microbial consortium developed by DRDE (Defence Research & Development Establishment), Gwalior, India. We manufacture the AMI under License from DRDE, Ministry of Defence, Govt of India. AMI is a mixture of different types of bacteria (Hydrolytic, Acidogenic, Acetogenic and Methanogenic groups) responsible for breakdown of complex polymers into simple sugars which are further broken down into low chain fatty acids and finally into biogas. The AMI has been developed by enriching a desired group of bacteria from mixture of microbes by natural selection. The efficiency of the consortium was improved by fortification of several critical species of bacteria (Proteolytic bacteria) isolated from cold habitats like Antarctica, Leh and Siachen glacier areas. The AMI was also augmented with Volatile Fatty Acids degraders and has been gradually adapted to grow even at 5°C so that it can work efficiently at mesophilic as well as psychrophilic temperature. AMI efficiently degrades human waste at temperatures as low as 5°C and as high as 50°C. AMI is the heart of the BIO-DIGESTER System and essentially required to digest the human waste matter by anaerobic bio-degradation process which happens in four sequential steps namely
- Hydrolysis
- Acidogenesis
- Acetogensis
- Methanogenesis
The last two processes are very poorly understood and are very sensitive at low temperatures. Low temperature operations need low temperature active bacterial inoculum for efficient bio-degradation. In the anaerobic degradation / digestion process each of the above step is dependent on each other for food and energy requirement and every step is performed by specific class of microorganisms which are present in the Anaerobic Microbial Inoculum manufactured and supplied by us.
- pH: 6.5 – 8.0
- Biogas: > 50 % of total volume of flask after 48 hours
- Inflammability: Biogas generated is inflammable but not the AMI
- Percentage methane: > 40 % after 48 hours
- MPN for methanogens: > 103 / ml
- Total solids: 3 – 4 %
- No energy required to operate the Bio-Digester
- Very little amount of sludge generated because of lower biomass produced in the absence of oxygen
- Anaerobic process inactivates the pathogens present in the human waste matter
- No bad smell in toilets or from the Bio-Digester Tanks
- No infestation of cockroaches and flies
- Faecal matter in the tank not visible
- No clogging of digester
- Effluent is free from offensive odours, solid waste and does not contaminate the ground water / soil like other systems do
- No maintenance required
- Reduction in organic matter by 90%
- No requirement of topping up with any bacteria/enzyme
- No need of removal of solid waste
- Normal cleansing agents like phenyl, toilet cleaners can be used