Number Two Could be Number One Answer to Clean Fuel: Biomass Energy: Eco20/20

Number Two Could be Number One Answer to Clean Fuel

Many people are becoming more aware of the ability to change human waste into energy. The process most people are familiar with, however, is the commercial level of conversion. One company, however, is leading the way to creating a converter that is appropriately sized for private use. Much like the larger system that is already implemented, these smaller systems will place human waste into a receptacle that will increase the bacteria that disintegrates the waste. As these bacteria work, they release natural gas, or methane, that is then captured into a system and is then piped to the electric grid.

These smaller systems will act the same way, but on a smaller, more personal scale. Sintex Industries of India hopes to provide a portable sanitation system that isn't currently available in India. This could be a huge step forward for India, who currently has no law against defecating in public. Already, there is a clean public toilet in South Delhi that is connected to a waste digester. The waste that is used provides cooking gas to a school and training facility that is owned by the Sulabh Sanitation Movement, the same group that owns the public toilet that is used by approximately one thousand people.

Haiti is moving forward with waste biofuel, not to reduce carbon footprints, but to reduce the rapid deforestation of the land. The deforestation is due to the large amounts of wood that is consumed for heating and cooking needs, since the majority of the country has limited resources and fuel. Another reason for pursuing the waste to biofuel conversion process is the fact that over one million people in Haiti were dislocated after an earthquake in 2010 left those people homeless. The tent cities that began quickly growing did not offer sanitary waste removal systems. The same lack of sewage treatment processes also aided the rapid growth of a cholera epidemic.

Rwandan prisoners eat food that is cooked using gas created from their own excretion. The biogas use has reduced the cost of wood used to fuel the kitchen by approximately sixty percent, which is a large number, considering the fuel cost without this waste converter would be near to one million dollars a year. Rwandan currently holds approximately one hundred and twenty thousand prisoners. This is an overpopulation factor of ten. This large overcrowding problem means a large waste problem as well. It is nearly impossible for small prisons to process such large amounts of human waste. It also increases the need for energy. Using human waste to create energy solves two problems at once.

With the success of many other facilities using waste digesters, it is a wonder that more research is not being done to increase the efficiency and decrease the cost of these systems.