[Greenbuilding] ... device to purify human waste, make compost and generate electricity

[Erin Rasmussen]

It didn't get a lot of attention, but I liked the Stanford/ Sanegergy toilet
that took an improved outhouse approach and then used a small propane burner
to turn the waste into charcoal that you could use to filter out any toxins,
or mix with regular animal compost to fertilizer your fields. You can also
cook with the charcoal, and the charcoal doesn't smell.    

 

I like their solution because they are working in Kenya in an area where
there are already improved cookstoves that use charcoal.  (So, the charcoal
stove uses much less coal and it emits many times smaller amounts of toxins
in the air). And the cookstove program, and the sustainable charcoal
programs that have been in that area have been making a profit and operating
successfully since the 1970's. 

 

In addition to that, there are already improved agriculture and re-greening
programs that are working in that area long enough so that the farmers are
seeing a lot of improvement in their soils, or in their sacks of soil that
they use in the city to grow food.   So the area that they are working in
already has a lot of people that have learned the skills that allow them use
this new source of char in to improve their lives.   

 

I guess in short, what I like about the toilet isn't just the toilet, it's
the fact that it is working with the existing technology in the  area to
improve the day to day of the people in a way that they are likely to
understand and relate to.

 

As an aside: I really prefer the plain old fashioned outhouse and lime trick
to the composting toilets.  I haven't had a good experience with large
groups of family members using the composting toilets. (phew!! stinky!!).

 

Cheers,

Erin

 

From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of sanjay
jain
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2012 8:42 AM
To: Green Building; compost-toilet at yahoogroups.com
Cc: cbutler at ecs.umass.edu; David; carol at ecowaters.org
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] ... device to purify human waste, make compost
and generate electricity

 

Urine diversion may prevent electricity generation (from article: the
organic waste matter is the fuel and nitrate is the oxidant)

 

IMO - it makes more sense to use the urine as a fertilizer than generate
electricity - those people who don't have access to electricity know how to
use latrines at night, usually by using 10 cent candles.

 

What I find offensive about these projects (composting toilets for the poor)
is that they miss 2 vital issues:

 

1) Composting toilets projects have been tried many many times, they FAIL.
In fact toilet projects in general fail because they are technology
orientated. The fact is (and I know this from experience) that people who
live without toilets don't really want them. The real issue is changing
their mindset about water and sanitation, before giving them a solution. 

 

2) The real problem (from an environment perspective) is us, not the poor.
We need to change before we can ask others to change. What gives us the
right to ask others to use technology we don't use them selves? If we
adopted eco-friendly technology, the poor will follow suit.

 

~sanjay

 

  _____  

From: Reuben Deumling <9watts at gmail.com>
To: sanjay jain <sanjayjainuk at yahoo.co.uk>; Green Building
<greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org> 
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2012 9:50 AM
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] ... device to purify human waste, make compost
and generate electricity





sounds intriguing but also very complicated. A urine diverting (composting)
toilet, presumably would accomplish some of the same things and has no
moving parts. 



On Fri, Aug 17, 2012 at 5:55 AM, sanjay jain <sanjayjainuk at yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:

http://www.umass.edu/loop/content/engineer-builds-low-cost-device-purify-hum
an-waste-make-compost-and-generate-electricity

 

 

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