Daily Mail
Using the bathroom could pay for your coffee at a university in South Korea, where human waste is being used to help power a science building.
Cho Jae-weon, an urban and environmental engineering professor at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in southeast Korea, has designed an eco-friendly toilet connected to a laboratory that uses excrement to produce biogas and manure.
The BeeVi toilet — a portmanteau of the words ‘bee’ and ‘vision’ — uses a vacuum pump to send feces into an underground tank, reducing water use.
Once there, microorganisms break down the waste into methane, which becomes a source of energy for the building.
The gas powers a stove, hot-water boiler and solid oxide fuel cell.
‘If we think out of the box, feces has precious value to make energy and manure,’ said Cho. ‘I have put this value into ecological circulation.’
The average adult defecates about 17 ounces a day, which can be converted to 13 gallons of methane, according to Cho.
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