Posted on 01/08/2015 9:29:26 AM PST by Brad from Tennessee
Bill Gates and friends have developed a simple system to convert human feces into electricity, fresh water and pathogen-free ash – and no stink!
In a quest to find a way to end the tragic death of more than 700,000 children annually from drinking bad water, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has sponsored a variety of waste treatment programs in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Janicki Bioenergy develops and manufactures a variety of sizes of this system. It uses the combustible biomass (roughly 20% of the feces) to heat mass quantities to ~2000 degrees Fahrenheit. The super-heated steam from the water content (80% of the waste material) then drives a generator to create electricity to power the unit with enough left-over to share in the community. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
My bet is that one of these things couldn't be approved by the EPA in the United States, ever.
“Some say that Apple is at work on a better system.”
LoL,
The “Downloads” will come from the App store.
Not relevant. The carbon in our feces came originally from the environment and will eventually return to it whether it is burned or decays.
No net increase in carbon.
As opposed to fossil fuels, which add carbon that had been locked up below ground for megayears. Net increase of carbon in the ecosystem.
We can argue about the effects of adding carbon by burning fossil fuels, but not about whether it happens.
Will there be a new version every two years, with some being actual downgrades of the previous model?
Yeah, but the faucets will require proprietary drinking vessels.
Fecal-Fantastic!!!
Actually, I saw a picture of him doing just that~
Interesting idea Gates has.
Dean Kamen has tried something like this 10 years ago with his “Sling shot” stirling engine water purification device.
$100,000 to produce each, Big maintenance issues / expertise needed to keep it running over the long haul.
Unfortunately, his initiative hasn’t gathered much steam, so to speak. (Pardon the pun)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slingshot_(water_vapor_distillation_system)
That’s right....because I don’t think this device was meant to run in the US, under US environmental laws.
Even so, this thing HAS been running here (the company is in Sedro Wooley, WA) and (as far as I know) the EPA hasn’t said ‘boo’.
And still, the EPA would never allow the burning of the poo without proper permits and treatment of the combustion gasses and the residual ash.
Is it a neat idea in some third world country with limited sewage and power generation capabilities? Yes. Would it ever be allowed to function in the United States with our EPA laws? No.
Allegedly built the pyramids and is the cradle of all civilization and learning but can’t build sewers or plumb running water.
Didn’t see mention of natural gas as a fuel. That would make sense.
The article seemed to imply the whole thing is fueled by the heat value of the poo.
The internet is a very weird place. Here’s an article on the heat value of sewage sludge. Apparently it is somewhat higher per unit of weight than most types of coal.
https://web.anl.gov/PCS/acsfuel/preprint%20archive/Files/36_4_NEW%20YORK_08-91_1653.pdf
However, that is for dewatered sludge. Getting the water out requires energy, and I suspect it requires more energy than is gained when the dewatered sludge is burned.
There ain’t no such thing as a free energy lunch.
Acck, misread the article.
Sludge has roughly half the heat value per pound of coal.
Thanks, I was thinking along those lines but couldn't formulate it so well.
Common Core and all the money they make from testing, not to mention the data they will gather and sell on the children.
Places that have no fresh water also have no sewers so how do they get the waste from the ditch to the station?
Well, if the metal content is high, you can’t use it to fertilize crops, either. What do you suggest to do with the sludge?
You pick the turd up by the clean end and carry it.
Not so. Ferrous sulfate, selenium, iron, magnesium, copper, zinc, etc... are trace metals needed by plants (and people).
You just don’t want it as burned ash. That’s like say 500 tons of sludge burned down to 100 pounds of ash. Much of the metals go airborne in the smoke stack. The rest are 500 tons worth in 100 pounds of ash. That has to go to a hazmat landfill.
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