Unique Solar Power Toilet

Alternative power sources have been a robust area of research for the last couple of decades as the fossil fuels that power our world are fast coming to an end. Amongst the most popular alternative power sources being researched is solar power, or harnessing the power of the sun.

There have been a number of innovative inventions that use solar power to cook food, heat up water, and even drive a car. However there is nothing quite as unique as the solar powered toilet that has been developed by Karl Linden, a environmental engineering professor and his team of students at the University of Colorado.

“Sol-Char” is a solar powered toilet in which waste is scorched by fiber-optic cables powered by solar concentrators on the roof. The byproduct it makes is called “biochar”. This is a sanitary charcoal briquette-like material that can be used as a fertilizer in agriculture and also as a soil amendment.

Here’s how it works. 8 parabolic mirrors aim the sun’s rays onto a stamp-sized collector, this is passed on to the cables which then heat up the “reaction chamber” where the poop gets scorched. The science project is still being tweaked for better efficacy, but it will be interesting to see how it finally emerges from the laboratory.