Many believe that the world is turning to crap – how about using it as renewable energy?

The world has just passed a population of 8 billion. On average each person produces around f.5 ounces/128 grams per day. That’s literally a lot of crap – sticking with metric – close to 400 billion tonnes a year, going to waste, so to speak.

I am betting that there are thousands of people, maybe millions that already engage in putting human waste to good use, with all sort of mechanisms, processes and devices.

Maybe a lot of it can be used to “fertilize” the soil to go another step beyond “Solyent Green” – eventually providing more food for a ravenous human population on top of that produced by animals and insects, but there is another possibility. One that does not involve replacing millions of acres of land to build forests of windmills and plantations of solar panels.

Poop is produced by everyone – it has no “borders” and its use would, at the very least, release the burden (excuse the constant puns – hard to avoid!) on the energy needs of the poorest to the richest countries.

Scientists have been thinking about how to make use of that for a long time.

Here’s some background reading (whilst sitting down):

 Bacteria Could Transform Human Feces and Wastewater Into Energy (popularmechanics.com)

“"Resource recovery from waste and wastewater is nothing new," Puyol says. "We are trying to do what nature has been being doing for millions of years. Nature, in its wisdom, has selected photosynthesis as a mechanism for these transformations. We are only accelerating them."

And reference to some purple poop(le() eating bacteria:

Bacteria Could Transform Human Feces and Wastewater Into Energy (popularmechanics.com)

“Purple bacteria just needs an electric shock to transform human waste.”

“Entire industries are built around making waste seem invisible, like it was never there in the first place. But a new study from Spain suggests this might be a missed opportunity — scientists have shown that a type of purple bacteria can convert waste into hydrogen gas for energy production.”

Here’s a few “brownies?” talking “poop and pee”.

Powered by poop and pee? (snexplores.org)

On the “pee” side, there is this statement:

“Bioengineer Ioannis Ieropoulos in the pee-powered urinal he invented. About 1,000 people a day used this urinal during the Glastonbury Music Festival.”

“Once we get beyond the ick factor, sewage is full of energy waiting to be harnessed. And that’s why scientists are hard at work putting poop and pee to work in all sorts of ways.”

E = mc2 and all that, the “m” can be anything, I assume - not that I am suggesting accelerating it to light speed to see what sticks!

Leaving pee aside – or in a puddle or whatever, let’s take a look at poo for as long as we can stand to do so.

Here is a company that has had a plant (manufacturing kind) up and running for close to ten years in Bristol,

Biomethane | GENeco

It’s been around for almost ten years now to produce biomethane

“Biomethane has the same composition as methane derived from fossil fuels and can be used as a substitute for natural gas.

Biomethane is produced at Bristol sewage treatment works by upgrading biogas produced from anaerobic digestion - a completely natural process in which micro-organisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen.”

Seems straightforward enough. There isn’t much detail on the “catchment area”, or the “throughput” of tonnage processed compared to the energy output produced – or what happens once the energy has been extracted, but check this out:

"Biomethane is the fuel of the future, but it's here now. By using renewable gas generated from food and sewage waste, we are putting the circular economy into action."

“The globally-recognised GHG Protocol has recently recognised that Green Gas Certificates, issued by the Green Gas Certification Scheme (GGCS), can support a business's reporting of onsite GHG emissions, and lead to near-zero greenhouse gas emissions reporting.”

“GENeco's gas to grid facility is registered with the Green Gas Certification Scheme (GGCS), a system that tracks biomethane, or 'green gas', through the supply chain to provide certainty for those that buy it.”

Bristol Our city our future | GENeco

“… since its creation in 2009 GENeco has:

·        treated enough liquid waste to fill 2,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools

·        generated enough renewable electricity to power 100,000 homes

·        recycled or diverted nearly 250,000 tonnes of food waste from landfill.

So, the “greenies” love this “brownie” science!

Bio-bus graphic landscape (geneco.uk.com)

“6,000m3 - The amount of biogas we produce daily at Bristol sewage treatment works - that's equivalent to the methane produced daily by all the dairy cows in Wales!” – (there are around a quarter of a million dairy cows in Wales).

“The gas to grid plant at Bristol sewage treatment works is the first and largest of its kind. The plant produces up to 1,900m3/hr of enriched biomethane by cleaning and upgrading methane-rich biogas produced from the anaerobic digestion of waste.”

I am unclear how producing 6,000 m3 per day and 1,900 m3/hr reconcile – supply and demand I suppose.

The legacy of the poo bus | GENeco

“We’re delighted to see that one of the legacies of the Bio-Bus is that following the successful OLEV bids there are now set to be more than 70 biomethane buses running in other parts of the country.”

“Building on the success of the Bio-Bus initiative, GENeco is now injecting gas into the gas network and powers thousands of homes in the Bristol area.

Remarkably the gas people are using to cook with and provide heat in homes is unknowingly produced by themselves and their families.”

Presumably, there will be port-a- potties that can be installed instead of toilets in every house!

It would make as much sense as destroying millions of acres of valuable and with solar and wind, right? Different wind of course.

Maybe such domestic poop processors could reduce gas bills by 10-20%?

Maybe the entire plumbing system for billions of homes is due for an upgrade!!! Although Thomas Crapper did not invent the flushing toilet (the Minoans on Crete did, thousands of years ago) but there could be a new name on the inventors list coming up shortly.

Less of a “carbon footprint” AND less of a “carbon poop print” not forgetting the food waste used that would otherwise go to landfill.!

Onwards!

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