Microbial Waste Conversion

Microbial Waste Conversion

It will provide a great deal of benefit to directly convert human waste back to consumable food, ideally using only solar power. Such technology would eliminate much of the burden that waste disposal and agriculture put on the environment, hopefully in a way which is capable of stopping the current loss rate of ecological biomass caused by human activity. Examples of this loss abound, but my personal favorite is that there were more ships in the ocean than fish (by weight) starting in about 2007...{xkcd citation}

Graham Caine built a completely self-contained "eco house" in London in the 1970's. This house recycled his waste back to food in a way that I have been unable to find citations for in the NASA and ESA research documents available to me. His reward for this accomplishment was to have the awarding of his degree refused and his project called and "affront to architecture". Only now is it becoming more obviously useful.

Spirulina (arthrospira platensis) can be grown in human urine and that would enable direct photoautotrophy of a few percent of my waste stream; the starter culture is currently growing on my windowsill.

Rough bioreactor design is not yet completed.

Back to project list