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Solar-Powered Toilet Torches Waste For Public Health
Daniel_Stuckey writes "With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Reinvent the Toilet challenge, [a] team has developed a toilet that uses concentrated solar power to scorch and disinfect human waste, turning feces into a useful byproduct called biochar ... a sanitary charcoal material that is good for soils and agriculture. By converting solid waste to biochar (liquid waste is diverted elsewhere, as it's easier to deal with), the toilet thus allows for sanitary waste disposal without huge infrastructure investments. The toilet itself, called the Sol-Char, is a fascinating bit of engineering. In order to sanitize waste without the help of massive treatment facilities, Linden's team instead designed the toilet to scorch waste in a chamber heated by fiber optic cables that pipe in heat from solar collectors on the toilet's roof. 'A solar concentrator has all this light focused in on one centimeter. It'd be fine if we could bring everyone's fecal waste up to that one point, like burning it with a magnifying glass,' Linden said. 'But that's not practical, so we were thinking of other ways to concentrate that light.'"
Make the system detect something as it descends, and then hit it with the light/heat?
Just don't mis-aim or focus up too high...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Someone spent way too much time with the magnifying glass...
Bill Gates, with Windows OS, Office suite, and other software -and hardware- products changed the lifes of many people for the best - with the money people gave him for his products he continues to change the lifes of more people for the best.
I respect this Man and i wish him the best - he deserves it.
(haters gonna hate...)
I've got my balls to the wall man!
Balls - to - the - wall
We need to think of sanitation as a business opportunity, and turn the toilet into a status symbol.
AL (LOOKS UPWARD) Oh, dad. Look. I'm sitting on a Ferguson of my own. Just like you knew I would.
PEGGY (BEAT) Remember this at the trial, kids.
Brave Sir Robin ran away. ("No!") Bravely ran away away. ("I didn't!")
It all seems trivial if he is successful building this. I suppose it's true that applying tech to poop isn't something a lot of people are researching.
No shit?
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
...shit invention I've seen for a long time.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Why not compost the solid waste? That would be even better for soils and agriculture!
There are multiple reasons we pipe sewage away from where we live to be treated and public health isn't people's major motivator. It's smell.
Even in societies without piping people were digging latrines and putting outhouses way back at the other side of the garden to contain/diminish the odor.
By scorching feces to sterilize it, it is in effect gasifying it. it's self evident that this system will stink far over and beyond what an outhouse would. Thus while geeky enough to make /.'s front page on a slow Sunday, I doubt this system will see any success.
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
While Bill has a lot of resources to shove on these projects, he is also showing an example of "let's get up and go fix the world". I bet there are even more things to do and fix than the projects on which Gates is working on. It does not always even have to be based on some revolutionary technology or heaps of cash, there are possibilities that just have to be utilized. Let's do it.
Well, I guess it will make it easier to display the at the stores. You know, when a kid gets potty trained and you are at the hardware store looking for something to fix your leaky faucet and turn to find Junior is looking for the TP and asking you to help wipe. Now all they need to do is stick it outside for a couple hours.
My question is, how will this smell. I've had the misfortune of having to pour diesel fuel on a pile of shit and burning it before and it wasn't a good experience. And that outhouse was chemically treated to keep the smell down too. I cannot imagine many people wanting to purposely hang out around them.
When I look at the photo of this thing, a solar-electric panel with a battery and a heating element doesn't seem more resource hungry.
Sounds like it could be turned into a humane alternative to lethal injection.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
So here we have this commode that uses solar power to burn turds and they want people in developing nations to install and use them while the wealthy in the developed world continue flushing their porcelain thrones with gallons of fresh potable water? Perfect.
I thought it was about solar powered flash lights being a waste for public health.
Agreed.
When some people accumulate enough wealth, they become empowered enough to make a difference in the history of man. Some ( like Gates ) are using their resources in a way which will benefit humanity, others will go out and buy all the rental property they can.
I am hoping so badly ( hoping, mind you, not really anticipating ) that our lawmakers in Congress will see and craft tax law to encourage the kind of stuff Gates is doing and closing all of these tax advantages of simply rent-seeking and financial churning.
If Gates gets favorable tax treatments for doing this kind of stuff, it only empowers him to do more similar things as well as lead others to use the power of their wealth in a similar manner.
If there is one thing Gates has demonstrated over and over, he does have the leadership, organizational, and business skills to do it.
I know I have left lots of anti-Microsoft rants here: I feel hypocritical in posting this. Those rants were my venting my frustration as an older guy about software becoming so un-necessarily complex with all these special interest groups trying to get their proprietary add-ons adopted into Windows that pranksters have started having a heyday leaving a mess in everyone's machine. I was rooting for a very simple but thoroughly understood OS that was pretty damned bulletproof. My feeling was if pranksters thought setting people's fancy little outhouses on fire, then what I wanted was a simple one made out of cinder block.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
The first problem is that the vast majority of people in India and Africa are too stupid/lazy to even dig simple long drop latrines.
As opposed to the smart/dilligent westerners who all dig their own latrines?
There should be an extra large turd burner for racist turds.
"Solar Powered Toilet Torches deemed a Waste to the Public Health budget" is one example misreading.
John_Chalisque
Perhaps they could use this for those countries whose populations are so stupid they can't seem to even look after themselves properly... you know, the NON-WHITE ones, which white people apparently have to babysit for the rest of time...
I'd love to see B.G. choking down one of my doo-doo logs as a seal swallows a fish whole. ++Scatological Awesomeness
Bill Gates does indeed believe the sun shines out of his ass.
Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise. - William Shakespeare
A similar idea about lighting a house using fiber optics and collectors, combined with ordinary lights costs 10000-20000 EUR a pop. Mass production of optical components used in these and similar projects is needed.
No he's just doing a Alfred nobel, trying to make up for his fuckups! cough windows cough
Why is it that every hut in every starving poor rural village in sub-saharan Africa can get 4G LTE-Advanced internet access and toilets that generate fertilizer, when here in affluent suburbia the best Internet I can manage is 1.5mbit DSL and the only way available for me to deal with my excrement is to store it in a big tank until it decomposes?
When I just look at the image, this is not something I would imagine in some poor country where people can not even afford a bucket for their waste.
So not sure where they wuld put it.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
It all seems trivial if he is successful building this.
When he makes a public apology for funding SCO to try to destroy Linux . . . then I'll forgive him.
Although, I like his "Turd Torcher". He's taken the concept of "Fart Lighting" one step further. Other folks are trying to build "Smarter Cities". Gates is building "Smarter Shitters" . . .
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I was thinking, "why yes, 'solar powered toilet torches', whatever those might be, probably are a waste for public health ..."
All the Third World countries I've visited already smell like burning shit
Gates is already using tax law that lawmakers in congress put to work years and years ago specifically for this type of thing.
It's called a foundation and it is a non profit that people can funnel portions of their income into specifically for these purposes. Better yet, it isolates or shelters some of their wealth from threats they personally suffer or could suffer similar to how corporations isolate share holders except the wealth can no longer be used to their personal benefit. And as a registered nonprofit, the income and donations do not get taxed or taxed at reduced rates (see commercial non profits which is a commercial enterprise designed to sustain and benefit a charity) plus the advantage of certain contributions having tax benefits.
This is a classic example of too much technology, over thinking and wasting energy and other resources. It would be far, far better to compost the manure and urine creating value soil amendment.
Oh, wait, you say that isn't an option in the cities. Well, cities, yes, well, there's your problem.
It all seems trivial if he is successful building this. I suppose it's true that applying tech to poop isn't something a lot of people are researching.
It looks like the one key feature "how to get the poop hot enough" has some fundamental unworkable problems with it. The fiber optic gets cm square hot, not a big area (say, probably the size of a large stew pot) hot.
That means, he's just got a toilet with a light in it.
Those things are going to be huge, hard to build, and need lots of materials from somewhere.
Neat idea, but won't work. Industrialized countries with problems of "how do we make a trail side toilet work" may be able to use them though.
All the eco-friendly stuff is ignored by building codes, so while this toilet might exist and have potential, good luck getting it to pass local codes for permitting. Whether you want to build a membrane structure (like a yurt) or use composting toilets or harvest rainwater or use solar for your electricity, you'll have a hard time getting any of it approved. If they're going to make toilets like this, they need to make an effort to get building codes across the country fixed to allow lower-footprint solutions. In many places it's even illegal to live with solar/wind alone and they will come after you if you're not connected to the power grid.
Really? Whenever I think about Bill Gates, the first thing I think of is the stench of burning shit.
yeah, because moving away from user built composting toilets with natural materials that can be maintained by a person with 1 hour of training and moving towards complex systems that depend on the latest technology, labs to manufacture and engineers to maintain is good?
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
If for some reason you want pyrolysis instead of composting why not design a solution that people can build themselves. Say, a parabolic trough collector focusing on oil filled piping to heat the fecal matter. Such collectors built out of aluminum foil have been shown to be able to get temperature above 400f.
oh wait, but then Bill and his cronies wouldn't be able to get rich.
On a side note, I'll definitely try some experimental designs in nica now especially since I have to make collectors anyways for the solar kitchen. I was worried about containment size required for a composting toilet to accomodate large groups of people. Only having to deal with days worth instead of months worth would be a boon. Have to test out whether the biochar is as effective a soil supplement as the compost as well.
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
especially if you have a whole bunch of these toilets in one location.
The solar power thing is neat, but an incinerating toilet is nothing new. Have seen them at remote locations like mountaintop transmitter shacks, etc, where there is no water or sewer service available:
http://incinolet.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
And yes, they STINK.
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nature. _extremely_ efficient.
human. _extremely_ inefficient.
that's a problem when there are 7 billion extremely inefficient humans.
Absolute statements are never true
No need for a toilet at all, just a high powered enema and you're done.
Here is a much more reasonable explanation of it's usage in 3rd world countries.
http://www.rti.org/newsroom/news.cfm?obj=66147A01-A5A7-2842-B51FF79A5B7A91A4
Basically, you can take one, drop it anywhere without ANY infrastructure and you have a safe waste management system. It's a huge thing since most of the world doesn't dispose of their waste safely resulting in disease etc.
In all fairness, though, traditional composting toilets can't handle the volume produced in urban settings. They may be great for homes, but not so much for apartment housing, dormitories, airport terminals, etc. Biochar toilets can be adapted to meet at least some of these needs.
Another point: biochar acts something like a catalyst to improve soil but is not consumed in the process. The carbon is effectively sequestered for thousands of years, but biocharred enriched soils are better at appropriate release of moisture and nutrients while also diluting many soil toxins.
This might seem like the magic cure-all to all post-modern ills, but it isn't all blue sky hype. Each gram of biochar adds the surface area of a tennis court to the soil; a little bit of it goes a long way.
One last point: composting toilets only work well if they are properly managed. I had the misfortune of having a country neighbor for several years who was learning how to manage her composting toilet, and there were definitely episodes of odor problems.
Will
1 cm of light, pounds of shit, it's Windows all over again!
Sure, biochar may have slight benefits over compost, but do you have any clue how much it would cost to collect and distribute? No, of course you don't or you would know that the economic gain (if any depending on your part of the world) wouldn't outweigh the cost of collection.
This is not sustainable tech and is just a money grab looking for suckers who don't understand numbers (or can't be bothered to research them because hi-tech is always the best answer.)
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
oh, and yeah, you really do need onsite training for composting toilets. While the USA has put out a lot of informative booklets on sustainable practices they're always a little lacking on the proper maintenance.
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
Please read up on biochar before spouting off on a subject you know nothing about.
Will
I did, I plan on experimenting with it in comparison to a composting toilet and a biogas digester. Now go read the patent, when you realize it's not feasible for an urban setting put away your cock, this isn't a pissing contest.
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
Does fecal matter?
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
If Gates gets favorable tax treatments for doing this kind of stuff, it only empowers him to do more similar things as well as lead others to use the power of their wealth in a similar manner.
If there is one thing Gates has demonstrated over and over, he does have the leadership, organizational, and business skills to do it.
Jesus, can you shills get any more obvious?
This is some seriously sickening astroturf.
I never thought I would be taken as a shill for Bill Gates.
I have been so pissed off about some of his products I could just about climb the walls.
I do not know who to blame, as there are many special interests and factions with their hand in it.
However, I am in much agreement on how he sees fit as to how to distribute the proceeds of his business. He seems intent on leaving a legacy of making a difference. Much unlike most folk I know that seem to take finance like sharks at a feeding frenzy.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
The Australian government is turning our fiber plans to shit. Bill G is using fiber to burn shit.
Can't find it in the article but it doesn't have to be smelly. If the gasses are heated to a sufficiently high temperature without oxygen we can not smell them anymore. This because the smelly molecules fall apart in these conditions. The end products (in this case the gaseous end products will probably include H2, CH4, CO2 and H2O) are not smelly (although the mixture is probably flammable)
Heating without oxygen is how biochar is made.
Assuming this thing seals the reaction chamber before heating the poop there will be no smell.
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
Without saying too much, I have some first-hand experience with traditional and some not-so-traditional composting toilets. That experience leads me to believe that a manufactured composting toilet, a user-built Jenkins-style composting toilet, and a multi-chambered composting toilet, can all be easily scaled up. The Jenkins-style system, in particular, is dead-easy to scale.
The challenge is that the western world has grown used to the flush-toilet. All that extra moisture presents a problem to any composting system. A small constructed wetland (basically a lined pit or trench filled with pea-gravel and topped with a moisture prefering mixture of plants) could handle the extra moisture easily enough. A small constructed wetland a few feet in diameter and depth can process an amazing amount of waste liquid. The system scales well too.
So scaling is not an issue. As the system scales, I also feel that management becomes less of an issue as well (because it becomes feasible to hire expertise in system design and maintenance).
I'm leary of biochar. Frankly, its following seems a bit cultish. I understand the carbon sequestering angle, but the issue I can't get around is that the process of generating biochar volatilizes a lot of useful nutrients, almost everything actually. The result is, in many ways, similar to peat moss. Lots of carbon, not much else. I've dumped loads of peat moss into low-quality garden soil, and it helps, but not like compost does, not even close.
Subject says it all.
Hopefully it won't have toliet malfunction and give someone a flaming ass.