“Inconceivable!” is a quote from The Princess Bride, but you know what’s really inconceivable? It’s the amount of power stored in your septic tank! There are many small towns whose economy is livestock. As we all know, animals create feces. However, a lesser-known fact is that scat is 60% methane. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that can be burned to make fuel. This exceptional excrement can be sold in the form of fertilizer, methane, or power.
Nationwide, the US creates more than 1700 million tons of cow poop a year, 240 of pig poo, 170 in chicken scat, and only 60 of human poo. To convert human poop to power, we just need to separate the waste from sewage water. The sludgy mixture is then funneled into an air-tight container where microorganisms break down the molecules until the poop is so small it is eaten by other microbes and breathed out into gas. The majority of this gas is methane which can be turned into power!
The power we make can be used to run the power plant and equipment included to make the poo power. According to newsela.com, we could power 13,000,000 homes annually. On top of that, we can sell it for profit to other cities or use the rest to power government buildings.
When the microbes are breaking down the molecules, they leave behind a compost-like substance full of nutrients the microbes did not break down. This, like simply composted scat, can be used as fertilizer to richen the soil that grows the hay to feed the animals, and on and on and on, a semi sustainable system! We can also sell the fertilizer to local farmers or agricultural workers.
If, in the end, neither of these options suits your needs, we can at least burn the methane. Burning methane creates carbon dioxide, the simplest carbon-based molecule that is 5% less potent greenhouse gas. This process is already happening in plants to rid themselves of methane gas.
As you can see, there are many less harmful ways to deal with feces; energy, fertilizer, or making carbon. Some may be better than others, and there are likely more ways to cut down our waste. Who knows, maybe in the future, everything will run on that exceptional excrement!
– by Liliana S. (6th grade) Boulder
Feature image caption: The Power of Poop. Courtesy Liliana S.
Editor’s Note: This piece received special recognition at LitJam, a local student writing conference for exceptional writing. We present it to you as written by Boulder Elementary Sixth Grader, Liliana — unedited. The fecal facts and figures have not been verified. Our intent in publishing “The Power of Poop” is to celebrate Liliana’s writing and drive discourse on innovative ideas. Well done Liliana!