The 1st International TPS Conference took place on the 28st to 31st of August 2013. It was well-attended and there were many vibrant discussions about TPS. Resources from the conference are now available on this page.
Introduction to TPS
Terra Preta Sanitation is an issue of growing concern in the light of water and sanitation, climate change, energy and soil protection. The International Terra Preta Sanitation Conference aims at bringing scientists and practioners together to present their results and share their experiences.
The generation of new Terra Preta (‘terra preta nova’) based on the safe treatment of human waste could be the basis for sustainable agriculture in the twenty-first century to produce food for billions of people, and could lead to attaining a number of major Millennium Development Goals at the same time.
Conference Themes
The conference focused on the nexus around soil, energy and WASH. Please find below the conference themes:
- TP soils – historical and modern aspects
- Soil fertility and food security
- Intensification of organic farming
- New insight to plant-soil interaction (endocytosis)
- Land use, reforestation, reversing erosion
- Overall systems and system design
- Greywater in TPS – Bamboo, short rotation plantation, constructed wetlands
- Logistic and operation
- Microbiology, sanitization and lactic acid fermentation
- Carbon composting of biowaste and excreta
- Wood gas technology for energy and char coal production
- Pyrolysis vs. hydrothermal carbonization
For the conference brochure, please see 1st International Conference on Terra Preta Sanitation Conference Brochure.
For further information regarding the programme, venue and presentations please visit the conference page (link provided below) or contact the organizing committee.
SuSanA Working Group 5
As part of the programme, SuSanA Working Group 5 (Food security and productive sanitation systems) held a meeting in response to the conference. Results of the main meeting outcomes, as discussed by Working Group 5, can be found here. For access to all conversations in the Working Group 5 discussion forum (including more feedback on the TPS Conference), please see Working Group 5 Discussion Forum.
In addition, the SuSanA Forum has hosted discussions including the topic of TPS, for example, What is Terra Preta Sanitation (TPS) all about? Hype or ingenious?.
Organisation Committee
- Institute of Wastewater Management and Water Protection at TUHH (contact Torsten Bettendorf)
- GFEU e. V.
- WECF
Co-Organisers
External Links for More Information:
- TPS 2013 Conference Page
- Youtube Video on Terra Preta Sanitation
- Youtube Video Series which discuss Terra Preta Sanitation (see "show more" below the video for links to the full series)
- Terra Preta Sanitation 1 - Background, Principles and Innovations (Report)
