Wastewater Treatment Made Sustainable
Wastewater treatment plants are a convenience taken for
granted in modern developed communities. Out of sight and out of mind to the
extent that the average resident in the industrialized world would be
hard-pressed to locate where the local waste treatment plant is.
Construction of waste treatment plants is beyond the means
for approximately 2.6 billion people living in the developing world. The
absence of these facilities forces these people to endure an environment of
disease, parasites, increased mortality rates, and an overall decrease in
quality of life that comes with a lack of access to clean drinking water.
To address this problem, researches with support from the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation at Caltech developed the Self-Contained
PV-Powered Domestic Toilet and Wastewater Treatment System. This system
utilizes a solar panel which powers an electrochemical reactor which in turn
breaks down water and human waste into hydrogen gas. This hydrogen gas can be
stored in hydrogen fuel cells. Thus, providing power as well as disposing of
waste.
The Caltech research team received a patent for this system
in 2014. This video provides a more in depth explanation of the system:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVQaMsvBLb8
Resources:
- https://www.google.com/patents/US20140209479
- http://mentalfloss.com/article/52363/5-toilet-technologies-future
- http://www.caltech.edu/article/13432
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