It's Friday: Dean Kamen unveils dung-powered water and electricity generator
This is one of those stories that are just tangentially related to more environmentally friendly transportation. Dean Kamen is, of course, the creator of the Segway transporter. The Segway hasn't exactly taken the world by storm the way Kamen might have envisioned, which is probably due at least in part to the cost. But it does seem to have found a few niches where it is useful and the numbers of Segways in regular use (sometimes in funny ways) do seem to be increasing. Kamen's latest brainstorm is something called the Slingshot. If Kamen is to be believed this dung-powered device is capable of producing potable water from almost any liquid that contains H2O via vapor condensation so that no filters are needed. The purifier can produce about 1,000L of clean water per day. This could potentially be a huge boon to many parts of the world that have severe shortages of healthy water. The device also apparently produces enough electricity to power 70 light bulbs. Kamen believes the device would cost $1,000-2,000 in mass production. If this technology could be scaled up I wonder if it could be used to with some of the industrial farms in this country that are storing huge lagoons of animal waste. If the dung could be used to power the system and purify the waste while producing electricity it could address some of the environmental problems posed by these facilities. Of course it does nothing to address the treatment of the animals, but that's another story. A video of Kamen discussing his latest invention with Stephen Colbert is after the jump.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ecd4me 9:56AM (4/25/2008)
"TREATMENT OF THE ANIMALS" you mean the part where we kill themand eat them?
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Sam Abuelsamid 9:59AM (4/25/2008)
No I meant the part where we pump them full of drugs, pack them into cages where they can never move and stuff them with feed they were never meant to eat. I'm an omnivore but that doesn't mean I support the way most meat is produce in North America.
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ecd4me 10:16AM (4/25/2008)
neither am I. I'm just feeling a little goofy on a Friday. Seriously, I just discovered subscription farming. You can pay a share to the farmer and pickup fresh organic food for your family every week through the growing season. The same goes for meat. I don't think the cost is out of line either. your are cutting out the middlemen, allowing both parties to be happy with the cost.
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Sam Abuelsamid 10:19AM (4/25/2008)
We've done the community supported agriculture thing here for the past several years and by all of our meat from a local butcher that gets it from local farms.
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Steve 10:55AM (4/25/2008)
Can subscription farming be done long-distance? If so, how can I go about finding a subscription?
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ecd4me 8:56AM (4/28/2008)
I found my local CSA at localharvest.org. There is a box to enter your zipcode. I was surprised to find two in driving distance in my area. I garden a little, but I could never raise the variety or quantity these people are offering.
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rgseidl 11:38AM (4/25/2008)
If you need to get rid of large quantities of slurry, use an anaerobic digester to create biogas. That gets rid of the smell, delivers a combustible compound and the residue is valuable fertilizer.
The machine Kamen designed uses fuel - such a biogas from dung - to purify drinking water for consumption by humans and livestock. For example, many villages in India are having to dig very deep wells, the water brought up is laced with naturally occurring arsenic.
Any electricity Kamen's machine produces in addition to potable water is a welcome bonus. For example, it can be used to power a cell phone or computer that farmers in a village in e.g. Ethiopia can use to create efficient food markets. Famine is usually a result of poor distribution, there is actually more than enough to feed everyone.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/185
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bolhuijo 11:52AM (4/25/2008)
I wouldn't say that this thing purifies the waste. It produces purified water from waste or undrinkable water, but the output is just the same stuff with less water in it. The actual waste still has to be dealt with.
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RG 1:43PM (4/25/2008)
My uncle in southwest Iowa farms and raises cattle to sell. He does not pump them full of drugs, pack them into little cages where they can never move and stuff them full of feed they were never meant to eat. But he does sell them to the slaughter house and I thank him for the delicious meals I get as a result of him and others like him. Peta would have you believe that cows are only treated this way but it's just not true. There may be limited places that do this but as a whole it just isn't the way things work. They graze on grasses and yes they do get fed grain. At least in the midwest they do. It's called corn. It's natural and good for them as it is us. The only thing it's not good for is our gas tanks. I assure you that is not the way that MOST meat is produced. Maybe some but not most.
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ecd4me 1:25PM (4/25/2008)
If this invention does utilize a practical affordable Stirling engine, then it is something to get excited about. It sounds like a distillation process , I know there are others that utilize reverse osmosis for desalinization.
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Michael Hippenhammer 11:51PM (4/25/2008)
Now if someone can invent a system to produce power or gas for cooking and heating from a septic tank you will really have something. There a a lot more septic systems than you think. I would be a potential customer. I don't want to hear what is happening in India or South America we need it here in the U.S.
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LaughingTooHard 2:13PM (4/26/2008)
Michael,
At first I was excited to see someone else hoping for a solution but - if you waiting for Americans to LIMIT their consumption of an energy source and at the same time CHANGE their selfish and wasteful habits you will die a broken man.
People are not ready give up their "American-Culture" of waste and even if they did, food and cooking will be the LAST bastion of conspicuous consumption.
I do hope I am wrong and you have the answer but pardon me if don't hold my breath. FoodTV is one hell of indication that people love what they eat and do not care one bit of how much they waste in the process of preparing it.
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