Holy shit... By the way, there's a weird-ass Korean adult animation about a dystopian world that has (tried to) solve their energy crisis by burning human feces.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aachi_%26_Ssipak" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aachi_%26_Ssipak</a><p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0972542/" rel="nofollow">https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0972542/</a><p>Maybe those researchers have been inspired from that movie. Ah, how life imitates art...<p>The plot (highly NSFW by the way):<p>"Somewhere in the future, mankind has depleted all energy and fuel sources, however they have somehow engineered a way to use human excrement as fuel. To reward production, the government hands out extremely addictive, popsicle-like "Juicybars" to citizens, which in turn also makes them constipated. Aachi and Ssipak are street hoodlums who struggle to survive by trading black market Juicybars. Through a chain of events involving their porn-director acquaintance Jimmy the Freak, they meet a porn star named Beautiful, who gets a pink ring inside her butt which makes her defecations rewarded by exceptional quantities of Juicybars. For that reason, Beautiful is also wanted by the violent blue mutants known as the Diaper Gang (led by the Diaper King), the police (most notably the cyborg police officer Geko), and others."
What a "shitty" topic to talk about, shall we?<p>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.*<p>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 think a good amount of being easygoing on the topic is important here: as how sex sells clothing, fart jokes sell novel feces-recycling systems!<p>Another example (no affiliation) is Kompotoi here in Switzerland:<p><a href="https://www.kompotoi.ch/" rel="nofollow">https://www.kompotoi.ch/</a> (English available)<p>I was honored to do a particular type of business on these $5.000 toilets in the Swiss alps at 6.500ft, and admittedly felt like a king sitting on the throne of recycling!<p>Bottom line: drinkingwater-flushed toilets are not sustainable, nor accessible/affordable for the majority of the world, so let's stop being ignorant and seek for solutions.<p>Happy pooping!<p>* disclaimer: I grew up in Eastern European countryside, with no daily access to water flush toilets until I was around 8yo
Methane from sewage was used in London gas lamps since the 1890s when the Webb Sewer gas lamp was invented. [<a href="https://nikmorton.webs.com/webbgaslamps.htm" rel="nofollow">https://nikmorton.webs.com/webbgaslamps.htm</a>]<p>The most famous surviving example is next to The Savoy hotel on The Strand [<a href="https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMagazine/DestinationsUK/Farting-Lane/" rel="nofollow">https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMagazine/DestinationsUK/F...</a>]
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.<p>Why do it this way? Uses no water while not allowing the accumulation of smelly material. But why seal the product into bags?<p>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.
I keep expecting to see squat toilets. Especially for public facilities. Nothing to break. Use power washer to clean. Doubles as a floor drain.<p>I'd use a squat toilet in my house if it had some kind of air lock. Maybe like the Tidy Diaper Pail. <a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/Tidy-Diaper-Pail-Pearl/900658925" rel="nofollow">https://www.walmart.com/ip/Tidy-Diaper-Pail-Pearl/900658925</a> Pure frikkin genius.
Urine powered phones:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LTprRQTKAw" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LTprRQTKAw</a><p>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.
Meanwhile, there is a "War on Poop" in North Korea <a href="https://youtu.be/8yqa-SdJtT4?t=1898" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/8yqa-SdJtT4?t=1898</a>