The system utilizes a natural biological process to break down human waste into a dehydrated odorless compost-like material. Once these powdered feces are transferred to the Microbial Energy Production system, they can later be converted to methane, which becomes a source of energy for the building, powering a gas stove, hot-water boiler, and solid oxide fuel cell.
“If we think out of the box, faeces has precious value to make energy and manure. I have put this value into ecological circulation,” the inventor Cho Jae-weon said.
According to Cho, the eco-friendly toilet could turn about 500 grams of solid human waste, the average amount a human poops in a day, into 50 liters of methane gas. This means that the system can generate half a kilowatt-hour of electricity, enough to power an electric car for three-quarters of a mile. At a university in South Korea, human waste is being used to help power a building.
And because we are in a time when people’s enthusiasm for cryptocurrency is high, Cho has come up with a virtual currency called Ggool, or “honey” in Korean. Each person using the eco-friendly toilet earns 10 Ggool a day, which can be used to buy stuff on the university’s campus, such as freshly brewed coffee, instant cup noodles, fruits, and even books. The students can pick up the products they want at a special Ggool market and scan a QR code to pay for their goods.
“I had only ever thought that feces are dirty, but now it is a treasure of great value to me,” a postgraduate student Heo Hui-jin purchasing items at the Ggool market told Reuters. “I even talk about feces during mealtimes to think about buying any book I want.“
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