Researchers at Penn State are developing a way to turn the water that you flush down your toilet into a fuel cell. At wastewater treatment plants bacteria feast on organic matter in the water breaking it down in the process. As the bacteria do there job electrons are released out into the air – and that is wasted energy.
What the researchers at Penn State have done is put the whole process into something that resembles a battery cell. When the bacteria are deprived of oxygen they instead release those electrons down a wire creating electricity.
So far they haven’t been able to create a cost effective way of doing this on a large scale, but if they can figure that out then our wastewater treatment plants will be producing energy for the grid instead of using it. It’s estimated that along with supplying enough energy for there own needs the treatment plants could power for about 80 homes.
One of the most exciting things about this is that you can use almost any type of wastewater as fuel. To me that sounds like we’re one step closer to the trash powered DeLorean we’ve always wanted.
The toilet is said to be the single most important invention for saving lives. Everything from cholera to hepatitis can be incubated and spread through feces. By removing human waste from the living area the spread of disease is greatly reduced. This is why having access to toilets and clean drinking water is so important. In many third world countries these basic hygienic standards are considered luxuries.
When it comes to sanitary waste many parts of the world face different challenges than western countries. Currently there are 2.6 Billion people without access to sanitary waste disposal. Without this infrastructure in place drinking and washing water are easily contaminated, making the spread of disease much more likely. Diseases that are easily curable in western countries can wreak havoc on nations that do not have the resources available to combat them. The problem is that the western style infrastructure, laying sewer lines that send waste to water treatment plants, is cost prohibitive for these countries. Composting toilets are great for rural areas but do not dispose of waste quickly enough to work in crowded third world cities where huge numbers of people need access to toilets.
With this in mind the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have funded an effort to redesign the toilet for these types of places. The toilet they are looking for is cheap, efficiently eliminates human waste, and requires little to no infrastructure to support it. This is a lot to ask but many grants have already been awarded. Some current ideas involve solar powered toilets that bake the waste to sanitize it while others use “cartridge” systems where waste can be hauled to a disposal site.
You can find more information at www.gatesfoundation.org or listen to an episode of NPR’s Talk of the Nation devoted to this topic.
Spirits were high the morning before our office Christmas party… everyone was to receive a Christmas gift of tetanus and hepatitis B vaccines! Once the bleeding stopped we fired up the grill and, all kidding aside, the mood brightened up.
It was pretty cold outside so we had to bring the party into our shop, but that didn’t stop us from having a feast. Dave Paulette, our V.P., manned the grill and cooked deer, pork oysters. We had two tables full of food – everything from BBQ and fried chicken to cookies and cakes. Mike Browning, our Shop Foreman, brought in his famous baked beans but those were gobbled up before half of us even knew they were on the table. We topped it off with a raffle for hams and gift cards.
It’s rare to have everyone under one roof since so many of our employees are constantly in the field so this was a great way for everyone to get together and relax. It was a great way to close out the year.
I found a really addictive Pac-Man style game on the WaterSense website. It’s under the kid’s section, but definitely worth checking out if you’re bored.
Collect water droplets and answer questions to gain points. Avoid “WATER WASTERS” at all costs.
Like Energy Star, WaterSense is an EPA backed program specifically aimed at water conservation. This program provides consumers with an information resource and an easy way to spot water efficient products like faucets, showerheads and toilets via the WaterSense Label.
The EPA designed this program with the understanding that consumers might want to conserve water but would probably not do so at a sacrifice to comfort. Products that they endorse with their stamp of certification are guaranteed to reduce water use by at least 20% while maintaining the practical standards of traditional plumbing fixtures. What would be the point of having a water efficient toilet if you needed to flush it twice every time you used it, right?
Savings from these appliances will stack up too. Using less water with your faucets and shower not only saves on your utility bill but also means less water needs to be sent through your water heater, which will reduce the cost of your electricity bill. The EPA even has a handy savings calculator so that you can calculate your savings for 3 months or up to 10 years depending.
What the researchers at Penn State have done is put the whole process into something that resembles a battery cell. When the bacteria are deprived of oxygen they instead release those electrons down a wire creating electricity.
