Aiming to create a flushless, power-generating toilet for developing countries, engineers from Colorado State University have joined a national research consortium.
The toilet will be designed to disinfect liquid waste, dry and burn solid waste, and convert the resulting combustion energy into stored electricity. The group Tuesday was awarded $1.3 million by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge.”
The University of Colorado also received a $780,000 grant for a solar toilet, which would use concentrated solar rays to dry and disinfect waste that could then be used as fuel.
“Four out of 10 people worldwide don’t have a safe, reliable means to dispose of their waste,” said Morgan DeFoot, co-director of the CSU Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory.
The consortium includes researchers from Duke University, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Ames Laboratory, U.S. Navy Research Laboratory and RTI International.
