Crap! New Energy Source?

[Shooterman]

Anyone seen this?

Sintex Industries, a plastics and textiles manufacturer in Gujarat, India, is betting it can find profit in human waste. Its new biogas digester turns human excrement, cow dung, or kitchen garbage into fuel that can be used for cooking or generating electricity, simultaneously addressing two of India's major needs: energy and sanitation.

Sintex's digester uses bacteria to break down waste into sludge, much like a septic tank. In the process, the bacteria emit gases, mostly methane. But instead of being vented into the air, they are piped into a storage canister.

A one-cubic-meter digester, primed with cow dung to provide bacteria, can convert the waste generated by a four-person family into enough gas to cook all its meals and provide sludge for fertilizer. A model this size costs about $425 but will pay for itself in energy savings in less than two years. That's still a high price for most Indians, even though the government recently agreed to subsidize about a third of the cost for these family-sized units. "We want to create a new industry for portable sanitation in India that's not available now," says S.B. Dangayach, Sintex's managing director.

Government officials plan to end open defecation by 2012 (hundreds of millions of Indians use railroad tracks or other outdoor locales instead of toilets) and say biogas plants are part of the solution. A.R. Shukla, a scientific advisor in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, says India could support 12 million such plants, but only 3.9 million - mostly pricier models big enough to accommodate entire villages - have been installed to date. And last year the government fell far short of its target for new installations.

The future can be glimpsed on a dusty, rutted road in a poor South Delhi neighborhood. Here 1,000 people use an immaculately clean public toilet constructed by a nonprofit foundation, the Sulabh Sanitation Movement. The biogas digester attached to toilets provides cooking gas for a 600-student school and vocational-training program the foundation runs. In the past, nongovernmental organizations like Sulabh were the only ones offering biogas digesters.

But Sintex is hoping cities, real estate developers, building managers, and hospitals will jump at a ready-made way to harness the same energy.

Biogas digesters are just a small fraction of Sintex's business. The company has installed only about 100 of them. But it plans to increase investment and production tenfold in the coming year. That growth potential has helped Sintex stock more than double this past year. Human waste may be a stinky business, but to investors it smells like money.


Turning human waste into energy - Feb. 27, 2008

As I use to tell people many moons ago when I worked at the sewage treatment plant; "It may be crap to you, but it's my bread and butter."

[redtanker]

well sounds like a good idea to me

[Shooterman]

Originally Posted by redtanker

well sounds like a good idea to me

It definitely does to me, as well, Red.

[Woodmonkey]

Me too. Waste is inevitable and this puts it to good use.

[leobold1]

This is actually been tried before. There was a guy in the 50s or 60s who tried to power a car with sh-t power. The odor was the main reason he stopped. Burning dookie stinks worse than regular dookie.

If there was a way to stop the smell (or use the natural heat that compost emits) this would be one of the best ideas.

And I'd contribute to the power supply every day.

That would be a great way to market it.

CRAP! THE ALL NATURAL POWER!

Helps the farmers, ranchers, growers, and makes the ethanol debate almost moot. Corn now comes in as a new power source, but it HAS to stay food to work.

[Shooterman]

Originally Posted by leobold1

This is actually been tried before. There was a guy in the 50s or 60s who tried to power a car with sh-t power. The odor was the main reason he stopped. Burning dookie stinks worse than regular dookie.

If there was a way to stop the smell (or use the natural heat that compost emits) this would be one of the best ideas.

And I'd contribute to the power supply every day.

That would be a great way to market it.

CRAP! THE ALL NATURAL POWER!

Helps the farmers, ranchers, growers, and makes the ethanol debate almost moot. Corn now comes in as a new power source, but it HAS to stay food to work.

My understanding is Ethanol production from corn requires more energy to produce it, than is gotten from the end product.

As I said, it may be crap to some, but it was my bread and butter for three years.

[leobold1]

Originally Posted by Shooterman

My understanding is Ethanol production from corn requires more energy to produce it, than is gotten from the end product.

I've heard that too. Let me see if I can find something on it.