Building blocks
We all know just how beneficial fertiliser from cow pats are to growing crops. But did you know that it can also be used to build? Students at the Prasetiya Mulya Business School in Indonesia have created the EcoFaeBrick – a brick that they say is 20 per cent stronger and lighter than clay bricks. The idea is that, since cow pats are not-quarried it could cut down on environmental destruction created by quarrying.
Vroom vroom
Who knew that things that go “vroom, vroom” could come from stuff that goes “plop”. Case in point: the Volkswagon-made Bio-Bug car that could drive 10,000 miles a year with a fuel-efficiency of 8.5km per cubic meters of bio-gas. That bio-gas actually comes from solid waste produced by about 70 homes. Though the Bio-Bug can also run on traditional gasoline, the bio-gas from waste actually runs more cleanly with comparable performance.
Clean water
Most people haven’t heard of the Janicki Omniprocessor, but it will one day help deliver clean drinking water to poor countries where it is difficult to come by. That’s because the Janicki Omniprocessor, developed by the Gates Foundation, uses sewer sludge (with human waste in it) to make clean water. It boils out the water, separating it from the solids. That by-product is then heated to make steam to drive a generator that makes electricity as well. Plans are currently in place to set up the Janicki Omniprocessor in a community outside Dakar, Senegal later this year.
Bigger vroom
Dubbed the “poo bus” by local press, the 40-seat “Bio-Bus” that made it’s way around Britain last year ran on biomethane gas that came from both treated sewage and food waste. In fact, the bus is still running as it currently goes between Bath and Bristol airports and can travel up to 300km on just one tank of bio-gas. “Gas-powered vehicles have an important role to play in improving air quality in UK cities, but the Bio-Bus goes further than that and is actually powered by people living in the local area,” said Mohammaed Saddiq of GENeco, the company behind the “Bio-Bus”.