Over the summer, Discovery News told you how the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation wanted to reinvent the toilet. However, it seems they still want the world to "get its shi*t together" in an effort to stop the spread of diseases in developing countries.
Hepatitis, dysentery, trachoma, typhoid and cholera are all diseases that can easily spread when human waste is not disposed of properly. Flushable toilets are expensive and require complex sewage systems, as well as lots of water -- not an option for many parts of the developing world.
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That's why the Gates Foundation awarded Marc Deshusses, a Duke University environmental engineer, a $100,000 grant to develop his innovative waste disposal system he says can be built from everyday objects.
Deshusses says that for less than $100, a single family can build a waste disposal system that kills harmful pathogens without electricity or additional energy.
In Deshusses' simple system, waste is directed to a chamber that will likely be made from PVC pipe. Because the chamber is sealed to create an oxygen-free environment, bacteria will digest the waste and produce a byproduct of methane gas.
"The system works much like septic tanks used in many rural communities," Deshusses said in a press release. "However, in septic tanks, the methane produced is released into the environment, which is a lost opportunity as well as an environmental liability. As a greenhouse gas, methane is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide."
Instead of releasing harmful methane into the environment, the system would trap the gas and burn it with enough heat to destroy pathogens in the waste. Deshusses said that food scraps or animal waste might need to be added to the chamber to bolster the amount of organic matter and boost the methane produced by microbes.
The grant is part of the Gates Foundation's Grand Challenges Explorations program, which awards $100,000 twice a year to innovative projects with the potential to receive a follow-up grant of $1 million.
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"Grand Challenges Explorations seeks to identify and fund these new ideas wherever they come from, allowing scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs to pursue the kinds of creative ideas and novel approaches that could help to accelerate the end of polio, cure HIV infection or improve sanitation," said Chris Wilson, director of Global Health Discovery for the Gates Foundation.
Deshusses thinks his system can do just that.
"People in countries that lack proper sanitation for their sewage desperately need a disposal method that is cheap, simple to implement and maintain, and reliable," he said. "We believe the proposed system could represent a major advance in environmental and health protection for developing countries."
[Via GizMag]
Tags: Biotechnology, DoGooding, Health, Issues and Ethics, Off The Grid
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