title: The effect of material and flushing water type on urine scale formation.
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 which are commonly used in urinal manufacturing and exposed to different urine-based aqua cultures. This study shows that urine scale formation is the greatest for carbon steel material, and the least for 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.
authors.affiliation: Waterfirst Laboratory, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea E-mail: myhan@snu.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Shervin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hashemi
authors.affiliation: Waterfirst Laboratory, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea E-mail: myhan@snu.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Mooyoung
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Integrated Research Institute of Construction and Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Tschungil
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D014038:Toilet Facilities; D014556:Urine / Q000737:chemistry*; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D014876:Water Pollution
chemical_list: D014867:Water