Cook with your own biogas
The HomeBiogas Bio-Toilet collects your poop and uses anaerobic digestion to decompose it, transforming it into biogas (methane) that you can use for cooking. The kit comes with everything you need: the toilet, the tent in which the methane conversion/collection happens, and the stove for cooking.
I'm intrigued by the idea, but I wonder if the methane would have any lingering smell. Can't find this addressed on the product website.
More info: HomeBiogas.com
Along similar lines, here's an article about a university in South Korea that's using human biowaste to power a building. People who contribute their poop, by using the toilet in the building, earn "a virtual currency called Ggool, which means honey in Korean." This currency can be used to buy goods on campus.
I'm intrigued by the idea, but I wonder if the methane would have any lingering smell. Can't find this addressed on the product website.
More info: HomeBiogas.com
Along similar lines, here's an article about a university in South Korea that's using human biowaste to power a building. People who contribute their poop, by using the toilet in the building, earn "a virtual currency called Ggool, which means honey in Korean." This currency can be used to buy goods on campus.
Comments
Methane is odorless. The process does produce some hydrogen sulfide, but it isn't all that different from the methanethiol added to natural gas so you know when there's a leak. There's no odor when it's burned.
That said, those small systems are doomed to fail. The material starts breaking down immediately, and it's a race to get enough use out of it before holes develop.
That said, those small systems are doomed to fail. The material starts breaking down immediately, and it's a race to get enough use out of it before holes develop.
Posted by Phideaux on 07/20/22 at 06:38 AM
Human feces can be used to make briquettes which can then be burned for cooking. Here's an article about it.
https://www.africanews.com/2022/04/18/kenya-social-enterprise-turns-human-waste-into-profitable-fuel-business//
https://www.africanews.com/2022/04/18/kenya-social-enterprise-turns-human-waste-into-profitable-fuel-business//
Posted by Fritz on 07/20/22 at 08:09 AM
My parents used to get a subscription to the "Mother Earth News" during the 1970's home self-sufficiency movement. It would run articles about gas generator setups, some of which were toilets (Don't throw away what can be used later!), for the home and even an article or two about people who would convert junker cars to run on biomethane gas. It is not a new phenomenon by any stretch of the imagination.
Posted by KDP on 07/20/22 at 11:10 AM
I suspect the sulfur from us will convert to (or remain as) mercaptan compounds, in addition to the H2S. So you should have a higher concentration of mercaptans than in natural gas. (Methanethiol is methyl mercaptan.) Since very little of these gasses go a very long way, I'd expect the smell of this biogas to be much stronger. H2S doesn't have odor, exactly. Rather, it has a distinctive strong acrid taste.
When burned, everything becomes SO2 (and a little SO3). There could be enough of these to create some odor, but if so, nothing like the raw gas.
When burned, everything becomes SO2 (and a little SO3). There could be enough of these to create some odor, but if so, nothing like the raw gas.
Posted by Virtual in Carnate on 07/20/22 at 12:22 PM
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Category: Excrement | Power Generation