We have run many stories in the past about urine being used as a power source, but this week scientists appear to have made a breakthrough discovery. A research team from Bristol have published the world’s first research paper on work that tests the viability of urine as a potential fuel for Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) that directly produce electricity.
A case study in Vermont suggests that it is economically feasible for dairy farms to convert cow manure into electricity using anaerobic methane digestion, provided there is adequate commitment from utilities, farmers, customers, and government agencies.
TOTO, the top commode manufacturer in Japan, just unveiled an insane poop-powered motorcycle topped with a toilet that will travel across the island nation to promote company’s “Green Challenge” of reducing emissions 50% over the next five years. Dubbed the Toilet Bike Neo, the vehicle runs on biogas that is produced by an on-bike toilet, communicates in Japanese using LED lights, plays music, and TALKS. That’s right folks, poop and ride.
Raw sewage stinks, but did you know it is actually a hot commodity? Gaseous wastewater has the potential to be converted into energy-packed biofuel, powering city facilities worldwide. Soon, that noxious wastewater you’ve held your breath over could help power your home appliances through microbial fuel cell batteries!
It is amazing to see how creative people can get with finding and discovering new concepts and ways to produce energy. Some methods are absolutely mind-boggling and force you to ponder at the practicality of such a solution. Some options might lead to some energy generation – albeit too minor to be even considered – hence, insignificant. Nevertheless, it would be worthwhile to think over such options and appreciate the creative thought process of the inventor.
You can’t dump on this idea: A new $40 million initiative by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will help develop futuristic toilets that transform human waste into usable electricity and fuel.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced on Tuesday that they are giving away more than $42 million to develop new, innovative toilets for use in the world’s poorest regions. Many of the scientists working on these projects have science-fictiony proposals such as transforming human feces into charcoal and microwave-powered toilets that can generate electricity from gasified human waste.
A series of Google searches can require as much energy as an 11 Watt light bulb does in one hour. So you can only imagine how much energy it requires to run all of Google’s servers and other equipment (hint: a lot). Currently, many companies are attempting to reduce their energy usage through different methods. Google, for example, has developed advanced cooling methods and energy saving techniques to lower their environmental impact.
Other IT companies are quickly following suit. Most interesting is HP, which just yesterday presented a paper to the 4th International Conference on Energy Sustainability entitled “Design of Farm Waste-Driven Supply Side Infrastructure for Data Centers.” The paper describes HP’s plans to hopefully power their data centers with the manure of cows.
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