A revolutionary waterless toilet powered by the sun, developed to help some of the 2.5 billion people lacking safe and sustainable sanitation around the world, will be unveiled in India this month.
Designed and built using a $777,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the self-contained, waterless toilet with its innovative technology converts human waste to biochar, a highly porous charcoal. It aims to provide an eco-friendly solution to help some of the 2.5 billion people around the world lacking safe sanitation.
The toilet has the capability of heating human waste to a high enough temperature to sterilise it and create biochar, a highly porous charcoal, said Karl Linden, project principal investigator and professor at the University of Colorado. The biochar has a one-two punch in that it can be used to both increase crop yields and sequester carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
The project is part of the Gates Foundation’s “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge,” an effort to develop a next-generation toilet that can be used to disinfect liquid and solid waste while generating useful end products, both in developing and developed nations, said Mr. Linden.
How does Solar-powered toilet work?
"The invention consists of eight parabolic mirrors that focus concentrated sunlight to a spot no larger than a postage stamp on a quartz-glass rod connected to eight bundles of fibre-optic cables, each consisting of thousands of intertwined, fused fibres," Linden explained.
The energy generated by the sun and transferred to the fibre-optic cable system can heat up the reaction chamber to over 600 degrees Fahrenheit to treat the waste material, disinfect pathogens in both faeces and urine and produce char.
Biochar is a valuable material. It has good water holding capacity and it can be used in agricultural areas to hold in nutrients and bring more stability to the soils.
A soil mixture containing 10 percent biochar can hold up to 50 percent more water and increase the availability of plant nutrients.
"Additionally, the biochar can be burned as charcoal and provides energy comparable to that of commercial charcoal," Linden added.
Tests have shown that each of the eight fibre-optic cables can produce between 80 and 90 watts of energy, meaning the whole system can deliver up to 700 watts of energy into the reaction chamber, said Linden.
While the current toilet has been created to serve four to six people a day, a larger facility that could serve several households simultaneously is under design.
All have shipped their inventions to Delhi where they will be on display from 20 March to 22 March for scientists, engineers and dignitaries.
The toilet has the capability of heating human waste to a high enough temperature to sterilise it and create biochar, a highly porous charcoal, said Karl Linden, project principal investigator and professor at the University of Colorado. The biochar has a one-two punch in that it can be used to both increase crop yields and sequester carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
The project is part of the Gates Foundation’s “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge,” an effort to develop a next-generation toilet that can be used to disinfect liquid and solid waste while generating useful end products, both in developing and developed nations, said Mr. Linden.
How does Solar-powered toilet work?
"The invention consists of eight parabolic mirrors that focus concentrated sunlight to a spot no larger than a postage stamp on a quartz-glass rod connected to eight bundles of fibre-optic cables, each consisting of thousands of intertwined, fused fibres," Linden explained.
The energy generated by the sun and transferred to the fibre-optic cable system can heat up the reaction chamber to over 600 degrees Fahrenheit to treat the waste material, disinfect pathogens in both faeces and urine and produce char.
Biochar is a valuable material. It has good water holding capacity and it can be used in agricultural areas to hold in nutrients and bring more stability to the soils.
A soil mixture containing 10 percent biochar can hold up to 50 percent more water and increase the availability of plant nutrients.
"Additionally, the biochar can be burned as charcoal and provides energy comparable to that of commercial charcoal," Linden added.
Tests have shown that each of the eight fibre-optic cables can produce between 80 and 90 watts of energy, meaning the whole system can deliver up to 700 watts of energy into the reaction chamber, said Linden.
While the current toilet has been created to serve four to six people a day, a larger facility that could serve several households simultaneously is under design.
All have shipped their inventions to Delhi where they will be on display from 20 March to 22 March for scientists, engineers and dignitaries.
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