Water Science and Technology Vol 72 No 11 pp 2027–2033 © IWA Publishing 2015 doi:10.2166/wst.2015.422
The Effect of Material and Flushing Water Type on Urine Scale Formation
Shervin Hashemi, Mooyoung Han and Tschungil Kim
Waterfirst Lab, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea E-mail: myhan@snu.ac.kr
Integrated Research Institute of Construction and Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
ABSTRACT
One of the important challenges with current sanitation practices is pipe blockage in urinals caused by urine scale formation. Urinal material and flushing water type are the two most important factors affecting scale formation. This paper examines the scale formation process on different materials commonly used in urinal manufacturing and exposed to different urine-based aqua cultures. This study shows that urine scale formation is the greatest on carbon steel material, and the least on PVC. Additionally, material exposure to the urine-rainwater mixture resulted in the smallest amount of scale formation. Based on these results, two new methods for improving sanitation practices are proposed: 1. Using PVC as production material for urinals and pipelines; and 2. Using rainwater for flushing systems.
Keywords: flush water type; sanitation; urinal; urinal material type; urine scale formation