South Korean university develops toilet that converts poop to power and pays you for “deposits”

Quite possibly the greatest invention ever.

Our poop is a marvelous concoction of chemicals that must have worth on some level, and yet we simply flush that potential store of value away because it smells bad and tastes even worse…so I’ve been told.

The point is that there really should be a better way to deal with the daily dose of organic matter and one university in South Korea may have struck on it. On 9 July, the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea unveiled a toilet that is nothing short of revolutionary. Dubbed the “BeeVi,” this commode can convert human feces into pure electricity, and that’s just the tip of this steaming coil of greatness.

For starters, BeeVi conserves water by utilizing a vacuum pump to humbly accept your waste. It then delivers it to a storage tank in which microorganisms break down the fecal matter and isolate its precious methane gas.

▼ It’s like having your own little Master Blaster, but without all the attitude

A BeeVi is currently installed in a lab on campus and its organic fuel is being used to help power the building. According to BeeVi’s creator Cho Jae-won, the average human defecates about 500 grams (one pound) of matter per day, which in turn can produce about 50 liters (13 gallons) of methane gas that generates 0.5 kilowatt-hours of juice.

In other words, one dump would be enough to run a dishwasher or send a car over a kilometer. That’s a valuable chunk of energy, and as such BeeVi will compensate poopers for their contribution in the form of a virtual currency called Ggool, which is the Korean word for “honey.”

▼ A report on BeeVi and Ggool

Anyone who uses the toilet can receive 10 Ggool a day and spend in on snacks and books in a special on-campus store. It was said that the daily Ggool wage could roughly cover the cost of a coffee. One Ggool-spending student told Reuters, “I had only ever thought that feces are dirty, but now it is a treasure of great value to me.”

No doubt, and even across the sea in Japan readers of the news are in awe of a toilet that pays per poop.

“I want to live off money I make by pooping.”
“My poop makes methane… Why is no one buying it?”
“I can crap five times more than the average person. This is my time.”
“Does it also work with diarrhea and bloody stool?”
“Awesome! South Korea, you did it!!”
“I see. So hypothetically, if you change the seats in a car to toilets, you can drive forever.”
“Sorry I still have the mind of a child, but this is hilarious.”
“They did this in Japan a while back, but a terrible stench came from it and it never took off.”

Not much could be found about such a toilet developed in Japan, but about 10 years ago Japanese toilet maker TOTO created Toilet Bike Neo, a motorcycle that runs on methane and drove across the country.

However, this bike used methane from animal feces and its toilet seat seat doesn’t really work and is just for show, which is a bit of a let-down.

That’s not to say other countries have attempted methane producing toilets before, but it’s the inclusion of monetary reward for pooping that really takes BeeVi to a whole other level of greatness. It’s the job we were all born to do, and a great way to not let our waste go to waste.

Source: Reuters, Nazology, Otaku.com
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