Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Urine - so versatile!

hissingnoise - 23-8-2010 at 04:17

Urea has quite a few uses already. . . Here's a new one!

http://www.theengineer.co.uk/1004457.article?cmpid=TE01P&...

Glasgow

The WiZard is In - 23-8-2010 at 06:00

Here we have some progress , this being the only British City [Glasgow. British city!], as far as I
know, in which the public urinals are utilized for the production of ammonia.

ED. C. Stanford, Esq.
Inaugural Address by the Chairman, [The Society of Chemical Industry,
Glasgow and West Scotland Section.]

The Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry. 3 [3] 149-156. 1884.


djh
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
If Madame Galvani had not caught a cold,
and the doctor had not ordered her a bowel of
frog soup, and if her husband had not hung
the frog’s legs on a copper hook to an iron
rail, we might not have had the electric telegraph.
ibid.

Rosco Bodine - 23-8-2010 at 15:31

Also known as the "Pee for victory!" project ;)

The WiZard is In - 23-8-2010 at 16:06

Quote: Originally posted by Rosco Bodine  
Also known as the "Pee for victory!" project ;)



How to increase the supply of toluol, the basic raw material from which T. N.
T. is made, was the greatest and most pressing of all the problems in regard to
the existing raw materials. Before the war the sole source of this ingredient was
from by-product coke ovens. The monthly capacity of these ovens in 1914 was,
approximately, 700,000 pounds. By April, 1917, when we stepped into the
conflict, this capacity had been increased to 6,000,000 pounds a month.

A few details of how this tremendous increase in production was brought about
through the energies of the officials charged with this task and the most efficient
and whole-hearted cooperation of patriotic business concerns are interesting.

Three general sources existed from which toluol was obtained: first, from the
by-product recovery coke ovens; second, by the stripping or absorbing of toluol
from carbureted water and coal gas; and third, by the cracking or breaking down
of oils.

Investigations were made early in the summer of 1917 oil the possibility of
recovering toluol by stripping illuminating gas, and a report was made oil this
subject in October, 1917. Construction of the necessary plants to carry out this
plan was began late in November, and the first plants were in operation in April,
1918. This was considered a remarkable record, in view of the fact that the
operating personnel for the purpose had to be established and trained in this
entirely new line of activity.

In this connection it is extremely interesting to note that the American people in
13 of the largest cities of the country played an unconscious part in contributing
to the successful termination of the war by using artificial gas of considerably
less heating power, as a result of the removal of toluol for explosive purposes,
For example, in New York City, due to the extraction of toluol, the artificial gas
there was reduced in heating value approximately 6 per cent and the
candlepower lowered from 22 to 16 because of this stripping process.


America's Munitions 1917-1918
Report of Benedict Crowell
The Assistant Secretary of War
Director of Munitions
Washington Government Printing Office 1919



djh
----
[Activated Charcoal for gas masks]

The next step was to turn to the consumers of the country and ask them to
save their peach and apricot stones, their prune, plum, and olive pits, their date
seeds, cherry pits, butternut shells, Brazil nut shells, and their walnut and hickory
nut shells. The work of securing these and advertising the Government's need to
the public was turned over to the American Red Cross. There was some question
at the start as to whether the charter of the Red Cross would permit it to
undertake such a war activity; but, since it was determined that this was purely a
defensive operation, the legal forces of the Red Cross decided that the
organization could go into a campaign of this kind.

peach - 6-10-2010 at 10:39

UREA POWA

PISS ALL OVER IT, THEN BLOW IT UP!

I am tempted to make some of this and purposefully get myself arrested just so I can stand up all serious in court and say "DON'T TAKE THE PISS, GUYS, COME ON!" at the end of it, and then get glared at by the judge. :mad: :D

Waste products can be turned into powerful psychotropic drugs too; see, Image 1a

Image 1a


The Science Museum in London recycles poo from the toilets into methane production to power the building.

dann2 - 6-10-2010 at 14:41


<strike>Your taking the piss FFS</strike>

I believe piss drank from a being that has eaten Fly Agaric mushrooms (and had the trip) will set the drinker off on another one. It's the ultimate in recycling!
You could go on a trip by cyclying on your Bicycle while recycling .........

Have tried it myself.

Edit: FUCK I meant to say Have NOT tried it myself!!!

Dann2

[Edited on 7-10-2010 by dann2]

The urine of man

The WiZard is In - 6-10-2010 at 15:54

THE URINE OF MAN.


1. The urine of man.—Human urine consists, in 1000 parts of—

Water, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 932
Urea, and other organic matters containing nitrogen . . . . . . 49
Phosphates of ammonia soda, lime, and magnesia, . . . . . . . 6
Sulphates of soda and ammonia, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Sal-ammoniac, and common salt, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

1000 lb. of urine, therefore, contain 68 lb.of dry fertilising matter of the richest quality,
worth, at the present rate of selling artificial manures in this country, at least 10s. a cwt.
As each full-grown man voids about 1000 lb. of urine in a year, the national waste
incurred in this form amounts, at the above valuation, to 6s. a head. And if 5 tons of
farmyard manure per acre, added year by year, will keep a farm in good heart, 4 cwt. of
the solid matter of urine would probably have an equal effect; or the urine alone
discharged into the rivers by a population of 10,000 inhabitants would supply manure to
a farm of 1500 acres, and would yield a return of 4500 quarters of corn, or an
equivalent produce of other crops. MIr. Smith of Deanston considered the urine of two
men to be a sufficient manuring for an acre of land, and that when mixed with ashes, it
would produce a fair crop of turnips. (Report of Committee on Metropolitan Sewerage.)

An important chemical distinction exists between the urine of man and that of the cow,
the horse, and the sheep. It contains, as is shown in the previous page, about 6 per
cent of phosphates, while these compounds are entirely absent from the urine of the
other animals. The presence of the phosphoric acid contained in these phosphates,
adds very much to the manuring value of human urine.

If milk or lime be mixed with fermenting human urine, this phosphoric acid is
precipitated with a portion of the animal matter. Dr. Stenhouse found a precipitate of
this kind, when dried at 212o. F., to contain 40 per cent of phosphoric acid and of
organic matter, including about 1 per cent of ammonia. By the use of this method, an
important part of the fertilising ingredients of human urine may be separated in a solid
state. It has recently been adopted with some success for the purpose of separating the
fertilising matters contained in sewage water.

6. Sulphated urine.— A better method than that of using gypsum has been lately
adopted by several manure manufactures. They mix much sulphuric acid with the urine
as is sufficient to combine with and fix the whole of the ammonia which may be
produced during the decomposition of the urine. The mixture is then evaporated to
dryness, and is old and applied to the land in the state of a dry powder.

This sulphated urine, containing as it does all the saline substance of the liquid urine,
with the addition of sulphuric acid, ought to prove a most valuable manure. If prepared
from human urine, it will promote the growth of nearly all crops ; but, from the sulphuric
acid it contains, it may exercise a special influence on beans, peas, and clovers. As a
top-dressing it may be applied alone ; but when used for root-crops, it ought to be
mixed with and to take the place of not more than one-half of the farmyard manure
usually applied. Used in this way, at a cost of £2 an acre, Mr. Finnie of Swanston
obtained, in 1843, four tons of turnips per imperial acre more than from an equal cost of
guano.

As a top-dressing for wheat, and probably also for other corn crops, this sulphated urine
may be advantageously mixed with an equal weight of sulphate of soda or of common
salt, with at least as much wood ashes, if they can be had, and with half its weight of
dissolved bones. The soda salts are especially desirable where the land lies remote
from the sea.

7. Ammoniaco-magnesian phosphate.-Boussingault fixes the ammonia and phosphoric
acid of human urine by adding to it, after it has acquired an ammoniacal odor, a solution
of sulphate or muriate of magnesia, when the double phosphate of magnesia and
ammonia falls to the bottom of the liquid. About 7 lb. of this salt are obtained from 100
lb. of urine ; and it has been ascertained to possess powerful fertilising properties.*

* In reference to liquid manures, I strongly recommend to my readers, the " Minutes of
Information collected on the Practical Application of Sewer Water, and Town Manures,
to Agricultural Purposes," published by the General Board of Health


Elements of Agricultural Chemistry and Geology
James F. W. Johnston
C. M. Saxton New York 1855


djh
----
Nightsoil is probably the most valuable of all the solid animal manures. It varies in
richness with the food of the inhabitants of each district, * —chiefly with the quantify of
animal food they consume, — but when dry, few other solid manures, weight for weight
can be compared with it in general efficacy.

This is said to be so well known in some of the town in the centre of Europe, where
mixed population of Protestants and Roman Catholics live together, that the
neighbouring farmers give a larger price for the house-dung of the Protestant families.


JFW Johnson, M.A., F.R.SS. L. & E.
Elements of Agricultural Chemistry and Geology
CM Saxton Agricultural Book Publisher
New York 1855


Beer run to waste

The WiZard is In - 6-10-2010 at 15:58

Geoffery Matin and William Barbour
Industrial Nitrogen Compounds and Explosives
D Appelton New York 1915


Ammonia and ammonium salts

(8) From Sewage and Urine.—A very rich source of ammonia is ordinary urine.
100,000 heads of population could produce per year about 6,000 tons of NH4. If all the
ammonia corresponding to London urine were collected, more than 60,000 tons of
ammonium sulphate could be annually produced therefrom.

The method of collection of urine and its working up into ammoniacal compounds
has been carried on at Paris and at Nancy. In 1909 France obtained 13,000 tons of
ammonium sulphate therefrom, 10,000 being obtained in Paris alone. However, the
collection and utilisation of animal excrement is so nauseous and costly and dangerous
a process, that the bulk of the enormous ammonium supplies producible from this
source are run to waste.

The process consists in allowing the urine to ferment into ammonium carbonate. The
clear liquor is distilled and the ammonia recovered as in gas-liquor.

For further details see Ketjen, Zeit. angew. Chem., 1891; 294; Butterfield and
Watson, English Patent, 19,502/05; Taylor and Walker, U.S. Patent, 603,668; Young,
English Patent, 3,562/82 ; Duncan, German Patents, 27,148, 28,436.


djh
----
You don't buy beer -
You rent it.

Proverb

not_important - 6-10-2010 at 16:15

The "urine as fuel" is pretty much PR trash, I think.

The system appears to be a direct ammonia fuel cell, in this case hydrolysing the urea to NH3 and CO2, then using the NH3 as a source o hydrogen; some systems do this through a separate ammonia cracking stage but I've read a number of papers on intermediate temperature ammonia fuel cells that in effect do the cracking at the electrode.

So:

(NH2)2CO + H2O => 2 NH3 + CO2
2 NH3 + 3[O] => N2 + 3 H2O (in the fuel cell)
overall
(NH2)2CO + 3[O] => N2 + CO2 + 2 H2O

NH3 contains around 13.6 MJ/l, after subtracting off the cracking energy (endothermic). Urine is very roughly 1.5 to 2 percent NH3, giving around 20-23 kJ/l energy content. Gasoline is around 36.2 MJ/l, meaning the UrineMobile needs a tank capacity more than 1500 times as large as a comparable gasoline fueled vehicle. Even the greater efficiency of fuel cell plus electric drive plus regeneration isn't enough to make much difference.

Now urea itself has a bulk density of around 0.77 for the prills, and is around 56% by weight NH3. one hundred liters of urea would give sufficient energy (including fuel cell and direct electric moor drive) to power a car at freeway cruising speeds for around 9 hours. As water is produced, some of it could be circulated through a tank of urea prills to form a strong solution of urea which is then feed to the fuel cell; warm water is better than cold in this regards. The N2, CO2, and excess water could be cooled using a radiator, compressed a bit, and the N2 vented, leaving fizzy water. Equip such vehicles with flavoured syrup dispensers and you'll never run out of carbonated soft drinks while driving...

peach - 6-10-2010 at 23:03

I've heard the drinking other peoples urine after they've eaten fly agarics thing.

I'm not sure if that's a good idea, as I'm reasonably sure I've heard it also contains some toxic byproducts from the process.

I rememeber at university one of the fungi guys saying how toxic fly agarics are. My tutor was a mycologist as well. And I've read numerous things saying the same thing.

There were absolutely tons of them growing all around the university. I picked so many I filled my entire back pack with them, then dried and ate them.

Absolutely, NOTHING. Not even an upset stomach. My friend bought two packs of them from two other places and tried it. Nothing with three different things of them. Then he made the most ridiculous joint I've ever seen, it was about 2ft long, with all the stuff left over; having read something on erowid about it. Nothing.

There is a reason they're called FLY agarics too. They're usually riddled with maggots out in the wild, they're attracted to them. When they're warmed up, thread maggots start crawling out.

If you're after 'feeling funny from mushrooms' and the agarics, you need Amanita Pantherina. These can look suspiciously like it's friends from the Amanita's though, Verosa and Phalloides; the destroying angel and death cap respective. Care must be taken. :D

You will certainly feel something if you eat one of these, and it won't be 'trippy' in the normal sense of things.

The WiZard is In - 7-10-2010 at 06:38

Quote: Originally posted by peach  
I've heard the drinking other peoples urine after they've eaten fly agarics thing. I



For more than you probably dobe wanting to be knowing 'bout
agaric shrooms and urine —

R. Gordon Wasson
SOMA Divine Mushroom of Immortality
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.
Ethno-mycological Studies No. 1
1968 381 pages.

Peter T Furst
Flesh of the Gods : The Ritual Use of Hallucinogens
Praeger 1972 302 pages

&c., &c.

peach - 7-10-2010 at 21:54

Gordon Wasson, the investment banker, come Hofmann's friend, come Amateur explorer and scientist.

He ended up in Oxaca, Mexico... out explorering in the warm rain with Albert, where upon they discovered the shaman guys eating psilocybe mushrooms and smoking Salvia.

Hofmann then brought some back, wrote about them and synthesized psilocybin after LSD. He didn't seem too interested in salvinorin, or maybe he didn't feel up to synthesizing that as well. Magical mushrooms (in their various forms), of coarse, have quite a significantly longer and more widespread history than the one that started with the resulting papers.

I remember watching an episode of Fred Dibnah and he was down a mine, then said...

"Ooooo.. It... go't, old mushrooms as well" as they were growing out of the mine floor. That'll only be funny if you're from the UK. Picture him, the coal, the accent and magic mushrooms.

I also remember Billy Connelly saying;

"It dern matter where you go, they've probably found SOME thing that they can smoke or drink to feel merry"

To keep this somewhere related to urine

A combination of excrement and pee used to be used in leather tanning, to keep it soft and supple, wherein said animal skins would be put in a big vat of the stuff as it smoldered away, fixing the protein structure.

People used to jump in there to give it a mix around. I imagine infection was something an issue. Obviously, it stank so bad, the places were usually built well away from the rest of the houses.

[Edited on 8-10-2010 by peach]

The WiZard is In - 8-10-2010 at 06:06

Quote: Originally posted by peach  


To keep this somewhere related to urine

A combination of excrement and pee used to be used in leather tanning, to keep it soft and supple, wherein said animal skins would be put in a big vat of the stuff as it smoldered away, fixing the protein structure.

People used to jump in there to give them a mix around. I imagine infection was something an issue. Obviously, it stank so bad, the places were usually built well away from the rest of the houses.



Bating

Perhaps the most curious of all the processes involved in making leather is that
of bating. Little is known of it origin because it was a secret process, but it is at
least some centuries old. After the skins are taken from the lime liquors,
unhaired, scudded, and washed, they will contain lime in the form of carbonate
and in combination with the skin proteins. At this stage they are plump and
rubbery and tanners have experienced many difficulties due to putting the stock
directly into certain types of vegetable tan liquors when it was in this condition.
The object of bating it to prepare the unhaired skins for tanning and originally
consisted in keeping them in a warm infusion of the dung of dogs or fowls until all
plumpness had disappeared and the skins had become so soft as to retain the
impression of thumb and finger when pinched and sufficiently porous to permit
the passage of air under pressure. When hen of pigeon manure was used, the
process was called bating, and when dog dung was used, it was called puering,
but the tem bating is now applied to the process generally, regardless of the
material used. The difference in terminology naturally disappeared with the
advent of artificial bating materials.

A common method for treating light skins was to put them into a vat filled with a
liquor containing about 100 grams of dog dung per liter, kept at a temperature of
45o C. by means of steam. A paddle wheel kept the liquor and skins in motion.
During the action , the skins gradually lost plumpness acquired in the lime liquors
and became soft and raggy. The completion of the process was determined by
the attainment of a certain degree of flaccidity, which the workmen could judge
only after long experience. Hen or pigeon manure was sometimes used for light
skins, but was more commonly applied to heavy hides because it penetrates
more rapidly than dog dung, due apparently to the fact that it contains also the
urinary products, especially urea.

John Arthur Wilson
The Chemistry of Leather Manufacture
ACS Monograph Series
The Chemical Catalog Company
New York, 1923

---------
Alumed Calf Skins for Bookbinding

To alum them, put into a large vat three or four pails of dog’s turd (this dogs’ turd
is called alum) ; on this they fling a large pail of water to dilute it ; this done, the
workman goes into the vat, and with his wooden shoes, tramples it, filling the vat
half full of water. The “alumer”, on his part, pours water out of his boiler into this
vat, mixing it with the cold water, after which he flings in the skins, string them
and turning them for some moments with great sticks.

Morocco Leather

The river work finished, the skins are put into the “dogs’ confit, or mastering” ; for
every four dozens of skins they add one bucket of dogs’ excrement, containing
fourteen or fifteen quarts, which is worked up with their hands into a kind of pap
and well diluted. The skins are flung in, stirred and worked in the “mastering” for
some minutes, then turned and left to rest.

The Art of Tanning and Currying Leather, with an Account of all the Different
Processes made use of in Europe and Asia for Dying Leather Red and Yellow,
Collected and Published at the Expense of the Dublin Society, to which are
added Mr. Philippo’s Method of Dying the Turkey Leather as approved of by the
Society for the Encouragement of Arts, etc., and for which he had a reward of
£100, and their Gold Metal, for the Secret. Also the New Method of Tanning
invented by the late David Macbride, M.D., London. Reprinted for J. Nourse, on
the Strand, Bookseller to His Majesty. 1780.

In :—
Joseph Turney Wood
The Puering, Bating & Drenching of Skins
E. & F. N. Spon, Ltd. London, 1912




[Edited on 8-10-2010 by The WiZard is In]

The WiZard is In - 8-10-2010 at 06:19

Quote: Originally posted by peach  


To keep this somewhere related to urine

People used to jump in there to give them a mix around. I imagine infection was something an issue. Obviously, it stank so bad, the places were usually built well away from the rest of the houses.



Built well away from the rest of the houses ...


Quarterly Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Volume 11
Royal Statistical Society (Great Britain)

Report of a Committee of the Council of the Statistical Society of London, consisting of
Lueut.-Colonel W. H. SYKES, V.P.R.S., DR. GUY, and F. G. P. NEISON, ESQ., to investigate the
State of the Inhabitants and their Dwellings in Church Lane, St. Giles's.

[Read before the Statistical Society of London, 17th January, 1848.]

IT is only necessary to premise, that the inquiry of the Committee is consequent upon
communications made to the Council by one of its members, respecting the state of
the houses and their inhabitants in Church Lane, St. Giles's, which involved such
startling circumstances, that the Council deemed it a duty to have them verified and
attested, not less for the sake of the public, than to add to those stores of
information for the collection of which the Statistical Society was founded.
Your Committee, pursuant to their appointment on the 18th of December, met in
Church Lane, on Thursday, the 23rd December, at 1 P.M. :-Present-Colonel Sykes
and Dr. Guy, and Mr. Balfour, Agent of the Committee.

Church Lane is situated in the Parish of St. Giles; it is 290ft. long, 20 ft. wide, and
contains 32 houses. It runs parallel with New Oxford Street, and is bounded at the
west end by the backs of the new houses in Broad Street, and opens at the east end
into George Street. There are several back courts, one of which measures 48 ft. long
by 10 ft. broad, and contains seven small houses, the entrance to this court being by
a narrow passage 2 ft. broad and 20 ft. long. These houses are of wood, and contain
two rooms. Another court is 36 ft. by 24 ft., and contains six small houses. The houses
in Church Lane consist of a parlour or ground-floor, of two rooms, a first floor, of one
or two rooms, and a second floor, of one room. To the first landing on the stairs of
some of the houses, one or two small wooden rooms are attached behind,
occasioning considerable risk from fire. The houses have cellars under the ground-
floor, but as there is no drainage whatever from them, they are not tenanted, with
the exception of two; but some of them arc used as day-rooms. The narrow entrance
passage into each house terminates in a back yard 5 or 6 ft. square.

The lane is lighted by three gas-lights. "Water is supplied three times a week, but
there is neither pump, tank, cistern, nor water-butt, so that the tenants of all the
houses, with the exception of one lodging-house, three shops, and a public-house,
are compelled to save the water in their respective rooms, in such vessels as they can
command; but as the water does not continue on for a sufficient length of time to
enable all the inhabitants of the street to secure enough, supposing they had vessels
to hold it, they are compelled to deal with the shops or public-house to obtain a
pitcherful now and then; and they sometimes are compelled to filch the water from
each other.

The back yards are 5 or 6 ft. square, with broken pavement, and most of them have
accumulations of filth and night-soil, and the drainage from them (which is
superficial) runs through the passage of the houses into the street. The back rooms,
most of which are lighted by only one small window, patched with paper and rags,
open by low doors into this pestiferous area. These yards are, in most instances,
without privies, and in the few cases where they do exist, they are in a most
dilapidated condition. In the houses furnished with a waterbutt, this vessel is to be
found in the yard.

The under landlords, renting the houses, examined by your Committee, on the
north side, are Mr. Conroy, marine-store dealer, George Street; Mr. FitzGerald,
general dealer; and Mr. Mason, the keeper of the public-house in the street. The
superior landlords on the south side, are Lady Hanmer and Mr. Grout, and on the
north-side, the Buckeredge Estate.

As the value of your Committee's Report would much depend upon the detailed
and graphic pictures which it might supply, your Committee resolved to inspect
personally every room in every house; but as such an examination of every room in
the street would swell the Report to an inconvenient length, your Committee
determined upon taking a portion of the houses; and that there might not be the
slightest imputation of selection, your Committee resolved to examine the houses in
the order of their numbers. No. 1, of Church Lane, being a shop and a corner house,
belonging rather to George Street than to Church Lane, your Committee commenced
with the house No. 2.

The rooms are let either unfurnished or, if it be not a misnomer, furnished. In the
first instance, the walls and floor are bare ; and for such rooms, on the 1st and 2nd
floor, 3*. weekly are paid. In the second instance, the furniture consists of a small
deal table, two rickety or broken deal chairs, a bedstead, without hangings of any
kind, flock mattress, two blankets, and one pair of coarse sheets, one bolster, and
one quilt, a tub or pail, a pot or pan, and a kettle, and in some cases, a saucepan.
These articles constitute the furniture. Crockery, knives and forks, &c , are provided
by the tenant. The rent of such a room varies from 3s. 3d. to 5s. 6d., according to size.

...... House, No. 4.-Two Parlours, on Ground Floor.
Size of front room, 14 ft. long, 13 ft. broad, 6 ft. high ; size of windows, 3 ft. 4 in. by
2 ft. 2 in. Size of back-room, 11 ft. 2 in. long, 9 ft. 4in. broad, less than 6 feet in height;
1 window with 4 whole panes; rent paid, 5*. 6d. weekly for 2 rooms; under-rent paid,
3d. per night each adult; time occupied, 2 years; number of families, 5 ; comprising 4
males above 20, 9 females above 20, three of them single, 2 males under 20, 4
females under 20; total 19. Number of persons ill, 2; deaths in 1847, 1, measles.
Country, Irish; trade, dealers and mendicants. State of rooms and furniture, bad,
dirty; state of windows, 6 whole panes, and 10 broken. Number of beds, 6; number of
bedsteads, 6.

The door of this room opens into the yard, 6 feet square, which is covered over
with night soil; no privy, but there is a tub for the accommodation of the inmates; the
tub was full of night soil. These are nightly lodging-rooms. In the front room one girl,
7 years old, lay dead, and another was in bed with its mother, ill of the measles.

Poop-Powdered

The WiZard is In - 13-10-2010 at 10:26

Science 1 October 2010:
Vol. 330. no. 6000, p. 17
DOI: 10.1126/science.330.6000.17-b
Random Samples
Poop-Powered

The fuel of the future might be something we produce every day:
excrement.

Last month at a park in Cambridge, Massachusetts, artist Matthew
Mazzotta put the idea to the test with a methane digester fueled
by dog dung. Passersby picked up after their pets using
biodegradable bags and threw the waste into an oxygen-free tank.
As the microbes inside the dung broke it down, they released
methane, which then zipped out through a tiny pipe to light up a
gas streetlamp.

Machines like this aren't limited to animal droppings. "Anything
that's organic you can use in these biodigesters," says Ahmad
Pourmovahed, a mechanical engineer at Kettering University in
Flint, Michigan, who oversaw a much larger project to turn human
waste into biogas. The real question is whether waste can
compete against natural gas, a fuel whose price fluctuates
constantly, he says.

The microbes don't do so well in cold weather, so on 25
September, Mazzotta had to power down the digester until spring.
In the meantime, he hopes locals will think of a more creative
way to use the fuel: to light a shadow play, say, or to brew tea at
an eco-friendly teahouse.


djh
----
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