Biogas from human waste, safely obtained under controlled circumstances using innovative technologies, is a potential fuel source great enough in theory to generate electricity for up to 138 million households - the number of households in Indonesia, Brazil, and Ethiopia combined.
A report today from UN University's Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health estimates that biogas potentially available from human waste worldwide would have a value of up to US$ 9.5 billion in natural gas equivalent. And the residue, dried and charred, could produce 2 million tonnes of charcoal-equivalent fuel, curbing the destruction of trees.
Finally, experts say, the large energy value would prove small relative to that of the global health and environmental benefits that would accrue from the safe treatment of human waste in low-resource settings.
http://phys.org/news/2015-11-vast-energy-human-university.html
[Video]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=807RtubRyF0
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday November 04 2015, @03:31PM
To me closed loops are more appealing from an efficiency perspective. NYC produces a lot of sewage, and instead of being flushed out to sea it would be good to use it as an input into another useful application, like producing electricity, biogas, or for composting into fertilizer. Naturally doing that has implications for sustainability here on Earth, but it also serves as a sort of trial run for human habitation on other worlds where we can't just go out and mine or grow whatever we want.
Washington DC delenda est.