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Reimagined toilets at a South Korea university transform human waste into biogas

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Re: Reimagined toilets at a South Korea university transform human waste into biogas

#11

Post by foreigner »

kmarc wrote: post #3

What a "shitty" topic to talk about, shall we? I am happy to see a growing number of headlines about "rethinking" human waste management at any scale. Flushing toilets with potable water seems just very wrong, and a luxury I always thought western societies can afford only.* The system that the article describes is a funny one, or at least is sold with humor ("get paid as you poop"). Apart from the technology itself,…

I used a toilet once that was connected directly to the sink next to it. The sink had a faucet but no controls. When you flushed the toilet the water started coming out of the faucet in the sink so you could wash your hands, and then was routed from the sink's drain directly to refill the toilet's tank for the next flush. When the tank was full the sink shut off automatically.

It was genius! So simple and cheap yet effective. An interesting side effect is that after you flush the toilet the sink's faucet runs for quite a long time, which really makes you appreciate how much water is going in to each flush. Why don't all toilets work that way?

Re: Reimagined toilets at a South Korea university transform human waste into biogas

#12

Post by pkphilip »

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #6
kumarvvr wrote: post #2

What happens to the leftover content after the methane is extracted? Can it be used as a manure or is it safe to be dumped underground or in rivers?

I'm pretty there are all sort of health issues in using human sewage as compost. Look at North Korea for an example of that.

There are already ways of converting human waste into protein. 100kgs of human waste can be converted into 40kgs of protein.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinero/2019/07/06/from-fec...

Re: Reimagined toilets at a South Korea university transform human waste into biogas

#14

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

pkphilip wrote: post #12
DoingIsLearning wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty there are all sort of health issues in using human sewage as compost. Look at North Korea for an example of that.

There are already ways of converting human waste into protein. 100kgs of human waste can be converted into 40kgs of protein. https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinero/2019/07/06/from-fec...

Yummie Brownies!

Re: Reimagined toilets at a South Korea university transform human waste into biogas

#15

Post by jalk »

LargoLasskhyfv wrote: post #13

Don't mean to shit on it, butT central waste water treatment plants also do this. At least some. So I don't really get the novelty of it?

In Copenhagen, 30-50% of the gas in the consumer network is produced like this.

Re: Reimagined toilets at a South Korea university transform human waste into biogas

#16

Post by hulitu »

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #6
kumarvvr wrote: post #2

What happens to the leftover content after the methane is extracted? Can it be used as a manure or is it safe to be dumped underground or in rivers?

I'm pretty there are all sort of health issues in using human sewage as compost. Look at North Korea for an example of that.

I would like to look. Do you have some links ?

Re: Reimagined toilets at a South Korea university transform human waste into biogas

#17

Post by voisin »

foreigner wrote: post #11
kmarc wrote: post #3

What a "shitty" topic to talk about, shall we? I am happy to see a growing number of headlines about "rethinking" human waste management at any scale. Flushing toilets with potable water seems just very wrong, and a luxury I always thought western societies can afford only.* The system that the article describes is a funny one, or at least is sold with humor ("get paid as you poop"). Apart from the technology itself,…

I used a toilet once that was connected directly to the sink next to it. The sink had a faucet but no controls. When you flushed the toilet the water started coming out of the faucet in the sink so you could wash your hands, and then was routed from the sink's drain directly to refill the toilet's tank for the next flush. When the tank was full the sink shut off automatically. It was genius! So simple and cheap yet e…

This sounds amazing. Was it just a proof of concept or an actual marketed product installed somewhere? Commercial or residential setting?

Re: Reimagined toilets at a South Korea university transform human waste into biogas

#18

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

mikro2nd wrote: post #5
kumarvvr wrote: post #2

What happens to the leftover content after the methane is extracted? Can it be used as a manure or is it safe to be dumped underground or in rivers?

Excellent manure, feedstock for compost. Still too toxic for dumping into rivers.

https://humanurehandbook.com/

Re: Reimagined toilets at a South Korea university transform human waste into biogas

#19

Post by angus-prune »

Methane from sewage was used in London gas lamps since the 1890s when the Webb Sewer gas lamp was invented. [https://nikmorton.webs.com/webbgaslamps.htm]

The most famous surviving example is next to The Savoy hotel on The Strand [https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMagazine/DestinationsUK/F...]

Re: Reimagined toilets at a South Korea university transform human waste into biogas

#20

Post by windoze123 »

kmarc wrote: post #3

What a "shitty" topic to talk about, shall we? I am happy to see a growing number of headlines about "rethinking" human waste management at any scale. Flushing toilets with potable water seems just very wrong, and a luxury I always thought western societies can afford only.* The system that the article describes is a funny one, or at least is sold with humor ("get paid as you poop"). Apart from the technology itself,…

Speaking of eastern europe, here is some anecdata. There are villages and towns in Romania that received EU funding for water and waste treatment. Naturally money have been embezzled and instead what they got was “drinking” water with traces of fecal matter (bacteria and the resulting chemicals). When confronted about it, the locals (not even those responsible for the issue), said that the water tastes real good and are “proud” of what their mayors did to the water system. They even said its healthier than city water because it’s “eco” and has less chemicals. No less than 892 communes benefit from the blessing of “real good” water (a commune usually covers a few villages, so you can imagine the scale of the issue). And yes, they voted the same people back in and are staunch defenders of their “performance”.

Source (in Romanian, published by an investigative reporter): https://recorder.ro/harta-apei-contaminate-din-satele-romani...

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