Posted on 07/21/2011 1:00:43 PM PDT by Red Badger
Bill Gates has given Dutch researchers the task of creating a toilet that works without links to water, sewage or power networks.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded Delft University of Technology a grant to develop a way of using microwaves to process human waste and create electricity.
The researchers hope the new toilet could be produced at an affordable cost for people in developing countries with limited access to reliable infrastructure.
Waste will be dried and then gasified using plasma created by microwaves. The resulting syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, will be fed into a solid oxide fuel-cell stack to generate electricity.
Delfts Georgios Stefanidis, assistant professor of process intensification, said the process would generate enough power to become self-sufficient.
Part of the electricity produced will be used to activate plasma gasification, while heat recovered from the syngas stream and from the fuel-cell exhaust gas will be used for waste drying.
Preliminary calculations show that microwave plasma gasification may be energy self-sufficient, provided that the efficient transformation and high throughput of human waste matter can be obtained. It is also affordable.
The foundation announced the grant yesterday at the AfricaSan conference in Rwanda as part of more than $40m in investments in its new water, sanitation and hygiene strategy.
To address the needs of the 2.6 billion people who dont have access to safe sanitation, we not only must reinvent the toilet, we also must find safe, affordable and sustainable ways to capture, treat and recycle human waste, said Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the foundations Global Development Program.
Delfts Prof Andrzej Stankiewicz said: The current project presents an excellent example of how modern chemical engineering science serves not only the chemical process industries but also helps in resolving some crucial societal issues in the world.
LOL!!!!...............
Notice that he had to send this project to Dutch Researchers. He knows that Dutch Red Tape is so much less Sh-—y than our red tape. He must also believe that stoned Dutch Researchers are far smarter than their grant grabbing counterparts in the USA. Considering the public indoctrination system, he could be right.
Apparently too much money makes one stupid..............
Yeah, just invent one you only have to flush once!
I wonder if you’ll have to “run as administrator” to get it to open?
They should let that Dyson guy design it. No telling what he would come up with.
Sounds like Gates is trying to help Zero create some ‘shovel ready’ jobs.....lol
I remember you....The kid with the Playboy Mag in his locker...10 cents a peak if I remember. I’m the one who turned you in....you little perv...
Some factories have converted their boilers to burn pig manure. Burning crap to make electricity isn’t all that new.
Or a hole in the ground.
LOL, at least I admit it most people lie.
The best way to deal with Third World crap is to stop feeding the Third World crappers.
early-onset dementia?
Or maybe be just learned how anal Bill Gates really is.
At least you would have a blue screen to look at.
That screen in the glass of a micro-wave oven door is there for a reason.
I might not agree with all Gates’ causes or products, but he puts his money where his mouth is. His efforts to eradicate polio are massive. And sanitation is a critical issue in the third world, where poor sanitation means unsafe drinking waster and disease.
I applaud the man’s effort at this.
“Im all for advancemnets, Mr. Gates, but why reinvent the turd-burner?”
There actually are turd burning toilets. They’re called combustion toilets. Several years ago I researched them for a relative. The bottom line is they’re an expensive, often messy and unsanitary nuisance. They either work with gas or electricity. The gas models, being able to get hotter, usually do a better job.
The toilet described in the article is eessentially a combusting electric toilet that uses microwaves, generated by electricity, to vaporize the waste and turn it into carbon monixide, a flamable gas, and hydrogen instead of using electrical resistance heating to accomplish a similar goal. Then, as I understand it from the article, those gasses will be run through a fuel cell, or series of fuel cells, to produce electricity that will, in turn, be used to fuel the toilets. That means substantial infrastructure is going to be neeed to collect the gas in commercially viable amounts, transmit it to fuel cells, and return the electricity to the toilets’ users for further sanitation.
All in all it looks like conventional toilets could do the job better for less in areas with adequate water supplies since the waste could just be sent to central sewage treatment plants where the solids could be extracted from the water and similarly used to produce the fuel gasses.
“Okay, so without a power source, what generates the microwaves?”
Well, the gasified poop is going to power a fuel cell to generate electricity, which they then hope to use to power the microwaves to make more gasified poop. Guess they will have to charge up the fuel cell some other way first to get the process rolling.
Hell ... Washington don't need no taxes ... they are ... by God .... self sufficient.
(If this shit works)
pun intended
As a general rule,you can get low cost, high quality, and large supply but not all three at the same time.The project is doomed before it even begins.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.