What if poop could fuel cars the way crude oil does? Apparently, researchers at Canada’s Energy Department’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are making it possible.
(Photo : Photo by Adam Berry/Getty Images)
What if poop could fuel cars the way crude oil does? Apparently, researchers at Canada’s Energy Department’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are making it possible.
It can be remembered that flushing anything down the toilet takes it into one long journey. Waste makes its way through pipes and sewers and reaches a sewage treatment plant.
There, liquids are separated from solids, with each their own destination. Once the liquid has been purified, they are discharged into nearby surface water.
Meanwhile, the solids go to a landfill or are further treated to be used as fertilizer.
According to Singularity Hub, the scientists are refining solid waste into biocrude oil, which is similar to how crude oil works like gasoline and diesel.
The researchers did this using hydrothermal liquefaction, and it’s an accelerated, artificial version of the process by which crude oil is created inside the crust.Waste is subjected to high pressure and temperature, which…
