NuKitchen NoWaste is a smart kitchen wastewater separation and circular recovery platform designed for apartment buildings, residential complexes, commercial kitchens and real-estate operators. Kitchen wastewater is one of the most difficult building waste streams because it contains changing mixtures of oil, organic matter, detergents, suspended solids and water. Today, most sites treat it as a plumbing and maintenance problem: grease traps are serviced periodically, clogging is discovered after failure, and valuable waste oil or organic fractions are not measured or recovered efficiently.

The proposed system converts this hidden waste stream into a measurable, automated and recoverable process. Wastewater from the kitchen sink first passes through a low-cost mechanical pre-filter and settling chamber. A compact sensing cell then analyzes the flow using near-infrared spectral sensing, flow measurement, temperature, pH, electrical conductivity/TDS, turbidity, level and pressure sensors. An embedded AI decision engine classifies the incoming mixture into oil-rich, organic-rich and water-dominant phases, estimates contamination and detergent load, and routes the flow through smart valves.

The physical architecture separates three outputs: recovered waste oil, organic fraction and water phase. Waste oil can be collected by licensed oil recovery operators. The organic fraction can be optionally prepared for site-based composting or external organic recovery. The water phase can be directed either to greywater infrastructure, where appropriate, or to wastewater discharge when contamination indicators exceed the threshold. The system also generates a digital record of collected oil, organic load, greywater suitability, clogging risk and service needs.

The novelty is the combination of low-cost mechanical separation, multi-sensor fusion, NIR-supported material classification and AI-controlled physical routing in one modular device. Conventional grease traps are passive and maintenance-based. NuKitchen NoWaste is active, measured and decision-based. It does not only separate; it learns from each site’s flow pattern and provides building-level ESG and maintenance intelligence.

The system is designed for manufacturability using HDPE or PP tanks, PVC piping, removable filter baskets, standard valves, modular flow cells and replaceable sensor cartridges. Electronics are packaged as an edge controller with local decisioning and optional cloud or on-premise dashboard connectivity. The first proof-of-concept can be produced in 6–12 weeks, with an estimated early product COGS target of €6,000–€12,000 and a target selling price of €18,000–€30,000 depending on configuration.

The market includes high-rise residential buildings, housing developers, facility managers, hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, campuses and smart-city infrastructure. Benefits include reduced clogging and odor complaints, lower maintenance pressure, measurable recovery of waste oil and organics, improved greywater protection, visible ESG value and a potential self-financing service model based on recovered oil value and reduced maintenance cost.

This abstract is aligned with the existing NuKitchen NoWaste PDF: the deck shows NIR/spectral sensing, flow intelligence, AI decision routing, mechanical separation, oil/organic/water outputs, ESG KPIs, 6–12 week PoC target, COGS and selling price assumption.