FollowCombine sunlight and sewage and what do you get? Sanitation, of course.
Michael Hoffmann at the California Institute of Technology has been experimenting with solar-powered water treatment on a small scale. Now he plans to incorporate this technology into a portable toilet.
Sunlight powers an electrochemical reaction with human waste in water that generates microbe-killing oxidants and releases hydrogen gas. The researchers plan to collect the hydrogen in a fuel cell to power a light or possibly even a self-cleaning mechanism.
He received a grant this week from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to build a prototype. He says he can build one toilet for $2000 and hopes to reduce the cost through design refinement and mass production.
The premise is simple – you use the toilet, and once you’re done, the remnants are heated by means of energy generated by a solar panel, instead of simply flushing the remnants down the toilet. This leads to generation of carbon and hydrogen which can then be used to power fuel cells.
This project is being funded by none other than Bill and Melinda Gates with their Gates Foundation, and Michael (who, incidentally, is not related to Albert) believes he can bring down the hefty $2000 price-tag being slapped on the prototype drastically through mass production. His idea for this revolutionary new toilet stemmed from similar work using solar powered cells for the treatment and purification of water.
If this project is a success, who knows, maybe, you could one day have the privilege of using your own personal waste to power your living room! Ah, the wonders of technology.
Source: newscientist
