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The Power of Sewage
Eridanis writes ""The waste you flush down the toilet could one day power the lights in your home. So say researchers at Pennsylvania State University who last week revealed they have developed an electricity generator fuelled by sewage." Hey, it seems that EA will have to create a new building for Simcity!"
Let me at it after a night of Fort Garry Dark Ale and I'll power a city of 50,000 for 2 full days.
Trolling is a art,
The most powerful country ever!
Quack, quack.
Seriously, I went to school there. I thought it was all of the surrounding farmland that contributed to the odor, but this is indeed news to me!
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
you go on vacation or something? Would you have to pay someone to come over and use your bathroom to keep the fridge running?
Quote: "Hey, it seems that EA will have to create a new building for Simcity!"
Or at least have the raw materials for another of their games...
This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. - Dorothy Parker
..."clean" energy sources.
I am aware of Bio-Gas plants which are used in villages in India. The Animal waste is dumped into the "pit" Methane is released and it is used for cooking. But I guess this method is more efficent.
Good for farms where lot of animal waste is there
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Well, yes, but it would be pretty shitty lighting, wouldn't it?
http://www.switch2firefox.com/
Life is like a sewer: what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.
Something similar has been around since the 50's called "digesters" that use natural waste and the methane byproduct to power generators. It may have been invented at Penn State as well, but they are expensive so there are only about 20 of them around the country.
I'm a 2000 man.
If they try this with my excrement without a proper licence, I'll sue! Licences for my intellectual property can be bought for just $699. Sure, its shit, but its my shit. I thought about it, and my efforts went into creating it. Bofh Link
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
"Dear, break out the refried beans, the lights are flickering again!"
.... so do lots of other things. What happens when someone flushes a pint of paint thinner or weed killer or heavy metal organic compound down the old toilet?
This reeks of profiteering. We're to be overcome by the stench of people out to make a buck. We work our asses off while fat cats, flush with our hard-earned money, sit on their thrones and pooh-pooh the more environmentally sound ideas. I won't let them dump my money into their porcelain ideas.
The conspiracy theorist within me fears that these types of technologies will not take off because oil companies have so much power.
Biomass technology (energy produced from waste) has been around since the 70's. Though more specific and more refined than its predecessors, there's nothing revolutionary about this.
Biomass Energy is produced by burning the solid Biomass fuels (green plants, agricultural residues, carbonaceous waste, wood etc). Direct burning of Biomass in an efficient manner causes the energy loss. But through Gasification programme , Biomass is converted in to high quality of gaseous fuel through Gasifier power plants. In the Biomass Gasifier , Biomass (a solid fuel) is converted into gaseous fuel, called producer gas formed through a series of thermo chemical process. The producer gas mainly consists of carbon-monoxide, hydrogen and nitrogen gas. The gaseous fuel energy is used in several applications.
Another reason not to eat beef! Let 'em live and generate shit...err energy.(Just kidding, it's a joke, laugh).
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
http://www.energy.state.or.us/biomass/digester/dig estech.htm
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Lots of places have these; I see someone say "There are only a few in production" fairly often, but this is incorrect; there are more and more every year. Dairy farms are using them in large numbers, but the city of portland has a fairly large one (see http://www.energy.state.or.us/biomass/fuelcell.ht
that processes the residue from 82 million gallons of wastewater a day.
As an example of the economics, see:
http://www.eco-farm.org/sa/sa_dairy_synopsi
Payback in 6 years. Not bad, considering lots of places give grants, as these help cut down on groundwater pollution. You can have payback in 3 years, and then start making money on the juice you sell.
We discussed a similar high temperature conversion in the past. This alternative process uses high temperature/high pressure water to crack a wide range of complex molecules into simpler stuff. It can convert sewage, toxic waste, and animal byproducts into a mix of combustible hydrocarbons, salts, and water.
The new Microbial Fuel Cell method sounds interesting, but I bet it fails in the field. I'd bet that nasty substances (the odd pulse of heavy metals, detergents, or drain cleaner) would poison the microbial catalysts in this new fuel cell.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
heh... Mad Max 7 Way Beyond Thunderdome
e,.
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That idea sounds pretty shitty if you ask me.
We have been making power with sewage for a very long time, methane harvesting to run generators has been around for years, plants can power their equipment plus sell some surplus...
or with our product they can do it at a rate that is up to 60% more efficent...
Shameless plug: Premier Agritech, Inc.
"Nimis exaltatus rex sedet in vertice - caveat ruinam!"
"...Dilbert's Dream of passing IP packets via the sewer system..."
Wouldn't that be IPoo packets?
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
You're not going to run even one room light from this. You could use it to keep your cell phone and PDA charged, but you could probably do that just as well with generators in the soles of your shoes and gain mobility in the bargain.
(Yeah, I know everyone's playing this for yucks. You can see me as a wet blanket or a straight man, your choice.)
Scientists restrict study to entire physical universe; creationist
"Sewage power!"
"Wind turbines!"
"Sewage power!!!"
"Wind turbines!!!"
. . . - The Day the Shit Hit the Fan...
Seeing bad movies only encourages them. Watch responsibly
First of all, it converts waste product into electricity. But secondly, instead of sewage decomposing into methane, it decomposes into C02, which is a much less effective greenhouse gas. Additionally, the resulting by-products make a good, smell-free compost.
Here's a blurb about a biogas plant in Oregon
I would like to see all kinds of technologies that allow private parties to generate electricity become more prevalent. You can decentralize the power grid and open it up as a peer to peer trading network. It's the logic of the internet applied to the outdated logic of the power grid.
Put solar, wind, sewage treatment, and other types of generators in your house. Use what you need and trade what you don't. If you've got a shortage then buy back what you need. In January, south africans can sell solar generated energy to russia. In june, russians can sell it back. Private and commercial ventures alike can create power in large amounts by any means and then sell it in the free market directly to end users and other public entities with large energy demands that are all then free to buy from the lowest cost sources.
Hydrogen fuel cells will also help enable this by allowing the banking of energy for later use and/or trade. Superconductors can improve the efficiency of the whole system and help the private sector economics reach critical mass. Are all of these kinds of technologies going to inevitably converge toward an energy revolution? Between all the bits and pieces it really looks like something is going to come together...
In my former part of the world, nearly all toilets in homes are dual flush to save water. They have two buttons, one gives a half flush, the other a full flush. Its not rocket science to figure out when you need which. An american visitor had not seen this before.
Now that I live in the US, I wonder why such technology doesn't exist here. It seems like a much better way to save water than the problematic 'low flush' toilets common the US.
When I was a kid, my dad worked as a mechanic at a sewage treatment plant. After the sewage comes in, it passes through a system called a digester where it sat. The fumes which were collected were mostly methane gas, that was pumped into giant diesel engines that ran generators that ran the digestion system that ran the engines that ran the... Oh dear I've gone cross-eyed. There was still some solid waste left behind however. It was loaded into large spreaders and spread out on large fields and then flattened out to dry. Though about 90% of the stink had gone local residents still complained. So they came up with an industrial perfume called Roto-ban that was sprayed on top to cover up the smell. Shortly after more people complained about the smell from the perfume than the waste, so they stopped using it. What was left over was collected and sold as industrial fertilizer. You could not legally (in the US) use it to fertilize vegitation used for human consumption, but you could use it to fertilize food used for animal consumption (and then they could legally sell the animals as food). So basically HAHAHA (pointing) You eat turds!
You know, I've always figured there was a problem with all those calorie counting books. A single chocolate doughnut takes a half hour of aerobics to burn off. Riiight! Sure it does. Calories in=Calories out sure. The books all assume calories out=background metabolism+exercise. However, calories out=background metabolism +exercise+waste. They miss this third component.
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
If there was a battery you shoved up your ass for recharging, it would come in several sizes: A, AA, AAA, and AAAAAARGH!