Reusing Human Waste

Inspiration

We were inspired by the potential value that airlines were dumping from planes in the form of human waste. We looked into multiple possible uses for it, and settled on this concept.

What it does

Through the process of hydrothermal liquefaction, human waste can be compressed and transformed into biooil without harmful byproducts. This process takes approximately 30 minutes and can harness 50-75% of the waste’s energy. Most airlines were using disposal companies to dump the airplane human waste, which could lead to water source contamination. Our idea is to instead use HTL at an on-site airport facility to quickly process the material into usable biofuel with a very high efficiency. This protects the water supply and conserves natural resources, and produces a high amount of cost savings.

Analysis

We performed a case study on Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. By building a facility on site and funneling all waste into it, O’Hare can generate enough fuel to save between $500,000 and $1,000,000 annually.

Challenges we ran into

Creating the feasibility analysis proved difficult when we ran into scope issues for the project. However, we were able to solve that by limiting it to a single airport and reducing the analysis scope.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Working together to use all our strengths Synthesizing our ideas into an easily communicable form

What we learned

In brainstorming, it is important to get as many ideas down as possible Use all possible resources

What's next for Reusing Human Waste

There are expansion applications for the project as well. HTL can accept most biodegradable products and so airplane food waste can be processed to further reduce landfill strain. Additionally, water can be filtered off from solid human waste and purified for reuse elsewhere.