The Power of Poop Walking into a stinky bathroom usually brings up one thought pee yew But Leroy Mwasaru gave that nasty stench more positive thought than most people Leroy attended Maseno School in Kenya Africa When the school expanded its dormitory space to hold more than 700 students there were problems The pit-style latrines and primitive sewage system caused the area to smell awful Plus the massive waste the system produced was polluting local freshwater resources Meanwhile the only cooking fuel at the school was firewood and the smoke that accumulated inside was choking everyone in the building So Leroy and his friends figured out a way to solve both of these problems they would turn their poop into a clean cooking fuel The average person produces about 700 pounds 317 51 kilograms of poop per year 4
The students set to work designing a Human Waste Bioreactor HWB Their contraption would make use of all the latrine sewage along with organic scraps from the kitchen The waste would be channeled into an underground chamber Working sort of like a compost heap microorganisms would digest and break down the muck and in the process release biogas That gas which was mostly methane was contained in a tank Similar to natural gas it could be used for cooking and heating Leroy and his buddies refined their idea with help from other students Within the year they had a working system in place with new ideas to improve it 5
Leroy hopes to start up his own company someday with the goal of providing communities like his with clean fuel and healthy sanitation A Biogas Reactor inlet gas outlet pipe collecting tank biogas tank 6
In many rural areas around the world wood for cooking fuel can be scarce Plus wood fires can cause respiratory problems and other health risks from smoke inhalation A system similar to Leroy’s is being constructed in areas such as Nepal in South Central Asia Single-family biogas plants or factories work to collect animal manure human waste and plant materials The methane gas the plant produces is stored in a gas tank and a metal pipe with a valve supplies the family with flames for cooking their meals Natural Gas Natural gas is a fossil fuel that was created by the breakdown of organic materials from plants and animals that were alive millions of years ago The gas is stored beneath Earth’s surface 7
