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Old 01-14-13, 01:21 PM   #1
Daox
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Default Human waste powered incinerator / generator

I read this article about a North Carolina waste treatment facility looking into using human waste as a fuel for an incinerator / generator. However, it was dated 2010.

US to tap human waste for electricity | SBS World News

Quote:
A wastewater-treatment plant in Cabarrus County expects to start burning processed human excrement as early as next year to generate its own electricity.

...

The energy content of the man-made fuel is comparable to that of wood, says Robert Rubin, a professor of biological and agricultural engineering.

Quite interesting, I had no idea poo had that kind of energy density...


So, I googled up the latest info on it and it seems like they're going ahead with things. At the very least the idea is still there. The article doesn't have a lot of new info unfortunately. 1.9 mW doesn't seem like a ton of power. I wonder how many homes the wastewater plant serves?

Quote:
The Rocky River Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant, run by the Water and Sewer Authority of Cabarrus County, plans to invest $12 million to build a system that will enable it to produce up to 1.9 megawatts of electricity -- enough energy to power 1,400 homes every day -- from heat generated by a multihearth sludge incinerator. Sludge is human feces with the water removed.

A small FAQ sheet can be found on the company's website here:

http://www.wsacc.org/vertical/sites/...y_FLYER_V4.pdf

The sheet states that the plant will be online in early 2013 which is just about anytime now.

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Old 01-15-13, 08:45 AM   #2
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Warsaw's main sewage treatment plant is being upgraded and it is supposed to have an incinerator, though I don't know if it will generate power.

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Quite interesting, I had no idea poo had that kind of energy density...
Oh, it does! When camping on a plateau above the tree line sometimes the only thing to burn in a campfire is dried up cow patties.
Shows how inefficient our digestive track is
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Old 01-17-13, 02:24 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Piwoslaw View Post
...Shows how inefficient our digestive track is...
I have heard that the figure is around 10% efficient.

That's true for plant photosynthesis.

That true for herbivores.

That's true for carnivores.

I read a very interesting book that used this figure to explain how many square feet of land are required to support a plant.

And thus how many square feet of land are required to support an herbivore (that feed on plants).

And thus how many square feet of land are required to support a carnivore (that feed on herbivores).

And thus how many square feet of land are required to support a human (that preys on carnivores).

The land space requirement gets high pretty quickly.

It's a real pyramid thing.

-AC
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Old 01-19-13, 05:41 PM   #4
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The inefficiency of digestive tract clearly explains this: RunningAHEAD - Topic: The dog ate WHAT????

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