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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

#41

Post by kmarc »

cbmuser wrote: post #32
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,…

They have used human feces in North Korea to fertilize their fields with the effect that people got worm parasites: > https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/16/body-of-north-korean-defecto... Also, human feces can contain anti-biotics and other stuff that you shouldn’t be spreading over soil. There is a reason why hospital waste water gets special treatment before disposed of into the sewers. I don’t think using human feces as…

It is, at least where I am coming from, well-known that raw human feces must not be used for fertilizing soil; However, composted (long enough / on high temperature) would break down the pathogens that are bad for humans.

See more on wikipedia about fertilization using human feces [1] and in general, applications of composting toilets [2].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_feces#Use_as_fertilizer

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composting_toilet#Applications

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

#42

Post by kmarc »

Nextgrid wrote: post #7
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,…

> Flushing toilets with potable water seems just very wrong, and a luxury I always thought western societies can afford only. I assume the cost and potentially even environmental impact of reusing existing potable water infrastructure to provide water for toilet-flushing is much less than manufacturing, installing & maintaining separate local systems (to collect rainwater, etc) for this purpose.

You are absolutely right, however, as ben_w below also pointed out, while the economical / environmental impact might not be justifiable in our western bubble, it might be outside of it.

There are still places on this planet where clean drinking water is a scarcity, and therefore - along multiple other reasons - water-flush toilets and accompanying infrastructure cannot be (easily / justifiably) built.

However, as we can see there are different solutions to the problem itself (health-risk free, humanic way of taking a dump) without using up gallons of water.

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

#43

Post by kmarc »

sensitive-ears wrote: post #4
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,…

There are plenty of places around the world with western style toilets but flushed with rainwater or recycled washing machine/shower water instead. That seems like a fairly sustainable solution that already works?

Yes, those are better solutions, however still not really sustainable, and without incentives to build the accompanied infrastructure, it's never going to be sustainable; whereas solutions like the composting toilets are fairly easy to implement - FWIW ~ that's what we had before water flush toilets, isn't it?

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

#44

Post by xor99 »

Urine powered phones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LTprRQTKAw

MFCs (Microbial fuel cells) are waiting to feast on all manner of horrible stuff and produce energy. I'm not sure where economic incentives for peeing and pooing would go long term though.

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

#46

Post by supperburg »

I’m convinced that the solution is a system that uses a long tubular plastic liner that continuously renews the surface of the bowl between uses and simultaneously traps the session products in a sealed bag via thermo sealing.

Why do it this way? Uses no water while not allowing the accumulation of smelly material. But why seal the product into bags?

The waste needs to be disinfected before it can be disposed of in a casual manner. And ideally the smell should be neutralized. I think the best way to do this is by heating it up. Incinerating your poop every time you poop is too energy intensive. Instead, you can save up the bags and then burn them in large batches. Or send them off to be processed elsewhere.

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

#47

Post by tdeck »

supperburg wrote: post #46

I’m convinced that the solution is a system that uses a long tubular plastic liner that continuously renews the surface of the bowl between uses and simultaneously traps the session products in a sealed bag via thermo sealing. Why do it this way? Uses no water while not allowing the accumulation of smelly material. But why seal the product into bags? The waste needs to be disinfected before it can be disposed of in a…

Sounds like the loowatt system: https://www.loowatt.com/toilets.html

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

#48

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

dandanua wrote: post #36
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?

The novelty is that they want to use feces as a universal currency. This idea is very precious indeed, if you look close enough.

Sure... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wishing-Table,_the_Gold-As...

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

#49

Post by hexa22 »

voisin wrote: post #17
foreigner wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

It’s an actual product. My grandma in Australia has had one for 10 years.

I’m guessing it never took off because we don’t have that much of a water shortage in most places that washing hands is a luxury.

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